Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has recently piqued the interest of researchers from Stanford University due to the possible existence of water on its surface. This revelation raises the possibility of life beyond Earth, with Europa serving as a promising new frontier in the solar system.
What is Europa?
Europa is a moon slightly smaller than the Earth’s moon, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth’s. Despite a thin oxygen atmosphere, it is considered a promising place to find life beyond Earth due to the believed existence of twice the amount of water found on Earth beneath its icy surface.
Europa’s ice shell, estimated between 15-25 km thick, floats on an ocean that may be between 60-150 km deep. Intriguingly, despite its smaller size compared to Earth, it is likely that Europa contains double the amount of water found in all Earth’s oceans.
NASA plans to launch the Europa Clipper in 2024 to conduct flybys and gather data about Europa’s atmosphere, surface, and interior.
The Findings on Europa’s Surface
Europa’s surface, mostly composed of solid water ice, is believed to hold water underneath. The most common formations on its surface are double ridges, similar to those seen on Earth’s Greenland ice sheet. These double ridges are supposedly formed over shallow pockets of water.
Implications of the Recent Findings
The double ridges increase Europa’s potential habitability. Although its ice shell has been difficult to sample due to its thickness, this dynamic system is now understood to undergo various geological and hydrological processes. It isn’t simply an inert block of ice but possibly contains pockets of water, thus increasing chances for life forms to thrive there. If the processes observed in Greenland are similar to those happening on Europa, it could mean that water is abundant.
Jupiter: The Gas Giant
Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, is the largest planet in the solar system. It’s more than twice as massive as all other planets combined. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are known as Jovian or Gas Giant Planets because of their thick atmospheres, mostly made up of helium and hydrogen.
Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has continued for centuries. Jupiter takes about 10 hours to complete one rotation (a Jovian day) and approximately 12 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun (a Jovian year).
Jupiter has more than 75 moons, with the four largest ones, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, known as the Galilean satellites. Named after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who first observed them in 1610, these satellites are all unique worlds.
In 1979, Voyager mission discovered Jupiter’s faint ring system. Since then, nine spacecrafts have visited Jupiter, with Juno, the latest, arriving at Jupiter in 2016.
