Scientists found independent evidence that Europa’s subsurface liquid water reservoir may be venting plumes of water vapor above its icy shell when our Galileo mission collected data on the moon in 1997.
New analysis of old data brings new insights to the question of whether Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has the ingredients to support life. Scientists found independent evidence that Europa’s subsurface liquid water reservoir may be venting plumes of water vapor above its icy shell when our Galileo mission collected data on the moon in 1997.
Taken by our Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s, this image shows the puzzling, fascinating surface of Europa. Long, linear cracks and ridges crisscross the surface, interrupted by regions of disrupted terrain where the surface ice crust has been broken up and re-frozen into new patterns.
Areas that appear blue or white contain relatively pure water ice, while reddish and brownish areas include non-ice components in higher concentrations. The polar...
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