Jupiter’s Moon Europa

• 23 Apr 2022

For Prelims: Jupiter and its Moons, NASA

For Mains: Space Technology, Implications of Recent findings related to Jupiter's moon Europa

Why in News?

A team of researchers from Stanford University have found the possibility of water on one of Jupiter’s moons Europa, a prime candidate for life in the solar system.

• Earlier, NASA’s(National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Dawn spacecraft, dwarf planet Ceres reportedly found salty water underground.
• Earlier, Scientists also found signatures of water vapor in the atmosphere of K2-18b.

What is Europa?

• Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and its diameter is about one-quarter that of the Earth.
• Even though Europa has a very thin oxygen atmosphere, it is considered one of the most promising places in the solar system to find present-day environments that are suitable for life beyond the Earth.
• It is also believed that underneath Europa’s icy surface the amount of water is twice that on Earth.
• Scientists believe Europa’s ice shell is 15-25 km thick and is floating on an ocean, which is estimated to be between 60-150 km deep.
• Interestingly, while its diameter is less than the Earth’s, Europa probably contains twice the amount of the water in all of the Earth’s oceans.
• NASA is expected to launch its Europa Clipper in 2024.
  • The module will orbit Jupiter and conduct multiple close flybys to Europa to gather data on the moon’s atmosphere, surface and its interior.

What are the Findings?

• Europa’s surface is mostly solid water ice and contains water beneath it.
• The double ridges – the formations which are most common on Europa’s surface and are like those seen on Earth’s Greenland ice sheet.
• Double Ridges of the moon are formed over shallow pockets of water.

What are the Implications of the recent findings?

• The double ridges of Europa increase the potential habitability of the moon.
• The ice shell, which is potentially miles thick, has been a difficult prospect for scientists to sample. But according to the new evidence gathered by the Stanford team, the ice shell is believed to be less of a barrier and more of a dynamic system.
  • This means that the ice shell does not behave like an inert block of ice, but rather undergoes a variety of geological and hydrological processes.
  • There is a possibility that life has a shot if there are pockets of water in the shell.
• If the mechanism seen in Greenland is how these things happen on Europa, it suggests there’s water everywhere.

What is Jupiter?

• Fifth in line from the Sun, Jupiter is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system – more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined.
  • Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called Jovian or Gas Giant Planets. These have thick atmosphere, mostly of helium and hydrogen.
• Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.
• Jupiter rotates once about every 10 hours (a Jovian day), but takes about 12 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun (a Jovian year).
• Jupiter has more than 75 moons.
  • The planet Jupiter's four largest moons are called the Galilean satellites after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who first observed them in 1610.
  • These large moons, named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, are each distinctive world.
• In 1979, the Voyager mission discovered Jupiter’s faint ring system.
• Nine spacecraft have visited Jupiter. Seven flew by and two have orbited the gas giant. Juno, the most recent, arrived at Jupiter in 2016.

Source: IE