\nRevisiting A Landmark Discovery<\/h2>\n Europa has long fascinated scientists because beneath its geologically active yet frozen \u201cchaos terrain\u201d of ridges and valleys lies what is believed to be a vast saltwater ocean. If water vapor plumes exist, they could provide a rare opportunity to study material from the moon\u2019s hidden ocean without drilling through miles of ice \u2014 though that would still require a spacecraft flyby.<\/p>\n
In 2014, astronomers analyzing Hubble observations reported evidence of faint plumes detected through Lyman-alpha emissions, a specific ultraviolet wavelength associated with hydrogen atoms. The data hinted that water vapor escaping from Europa\u2019s surface could be breaking apart into hydrogen and oxygen in space.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
NASA’s Europa Clipper, depicted in this illustration that was updated in December 2020, will swoop around Jupiter on an elliptical path, dipping close to its moon Europa on each flyby to collect data.<\/span><\/p>\nNASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n\nEvidence Weakens<\/h2>\n However, researchers now say the original data analysis pushed the Hubble telescope to the limits of its capabilities. \u201cThe evidence for water vapor plumes on Europa isn\u2019t as strong as we first understood it,\u201d said Dr. Kurt Retherford of Southwest Research Institute, a co-author of both the original 2014 study and the new reanalysis paper.<\/p>\n
What was thought may be evidence of a water vapor plume could just be statistical noise.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur reanalysis took our original 99.9% confidence in the plumes\u2019 existence and reduced it to less than 90% confidence,\u201d said Dr. Lorenz Roth , Saturn, Enceladus, Jupiter, Juno, at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, the paper\u2019s lead author. \u201cThat\u2019s simply not enough evidence to support the certainty of claims we made at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\nEuropa Clipper May Provide Answers<\/h2>\n Despite the revised findings, scientists remain optimistic that Europa could still harbor active plumes similar to those observed on Enceladus, where water vapor jets have been directly confirmed. Jupiter\u2019s moon Io also produces dramatic volcanic plumes composed of sulfur dioxide.<\/p>\n
Although its plumes of water vapor are less certain, Europa\u2019s fractured icy crust could still provide pathways for water from the subsurface ocean to escape into space. Scientists hope future missions will settle the question once and for all \u2014 including NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper mission, which is scheduled to arrive in the Jupiter system in 2030 and will closely study Europa\u2019s icy shell, atmosphere, and possible subsurface ocean. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency\u2019s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) will arrive in 2029 and take three and a half years to examine Europa as well as two of Jupiter\u2019s other Galilean moons, Ganymede and Callisto.<\/p>\n
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This artist’s concept depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft as it orbits Jupiter and passes over the gas giant’s ice-covered moon Europa. NASA\/JPL-Caltech A new analysis of more than a decade of Hubble Space Telescope observations challenges earlier claims that Jupiter\u2019s icy moon Europa periodically ejects water vapor plumes into space. Researchers from Southwest Research Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brand-spotlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}