Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa may be light on oxygen, lowering habitability hopes

Georgina Torbet
By

When scientists look out into the solar system for places other than Earth that might be capable of hosting life, one of the leading locations of interest is Jupiter’s moon Europa. Even though it is far from the sun and it appears on the surface to be icy and inhospitable, it has a liquid water ocean located beneath a thick icy crust, which could potentially allow for life to survive there. However, new research pours some cold water on this possibility, as it seems that the moon produces less oxygen than previously thought.

Researchers used data from the Juno mission to Jupiter, which has also performed flybys of Europa, to see how much hydrogen was being released from the moon’s surface. Measured using Juno’s Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument, this data can be used to estimate how much oxygen is being produced — and it’s thought to be just 26 pounds every second, compared to previous estimates of up to 2,000 pounds per second.

This view of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was captured by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022.
This view of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was captured by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s close flyby on September 29, 2022. Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing: Kevin M. Gill CC BY 3.0

“Back when NASA’S Galileo mission flew by Europa, it opened our eyes to the complex and dynamic interaction Europa has with its environment. Juno brought a new capability to directly measure the composition of charged particles shed from Europa’s atmosphere, and we couldn’t wait to further peek behind the curtain of this exciting water world,” said JADE scientist Jamey Szalay of Princeton University in a statement. “But what we didn’t realize is that Juno’s observations would give us such a tight constraint on the amount of oxygen produced in Europa’s icy surface.”

Recommended Videos

Europa is affected by its environment particularly in terms of the powerful magnetic field of Jupiter, with radiation belts around the planet that bombard the moon with charged particles. These particles hit the ice on Europa’s surface and split it into hydrogen and oxygen, eating away the icy crust over time. This is how scientists are able to estimate the amount of oxygen produced by measuring the hydrogen.

Related

“Our ability to fly close to the Galilean satellites during our extended mission allowed us to start tackling a breadth of science, including some unique opportunities to contribute to the investigation of Europa’s habitability,” said Juno’s principal investigator, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute. “And we’re not done yet. More moon flybys and the first exploration of Jupiter’s close ring and polar atmosphere are yet to come.”

The research is published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
Gorgeous images of Jupiter’s cloud tops snapped by Juno spacecraft
Bands of high-altitude haze forming above cyclones in an area of Jupiter known at Jet N7.

NASA's Juno mission has become a favorite among space fans for its JunoCam instrument which often captures gorgeous images of the beauty of the planet Jupiter and its moons. Earlier this year the spacecraft made its 49th close flyby of the planet, and NASA recently released some more stunning images taken as it whizzed by the planet's cloud tops.

The first image was taken as the spacecraft made its close flyby on March 1, showing the complex structures in the cloud tops of the planet's atmosphere. NASA explains that the image shows "bands of high-altitude haze forming above cyclones in an area known as Jet N7." Cyclones are a common feature on Jupiter, particularly near the poles, and a formed due to differences in atmospheric pressure which cause parts of the atmosphere to rotate. Here you can see a number of cyclones, which rotate clockwise, but it is also common to observe anticyclones, which rotate counterclockwise.

Read more
The search for habitable moons in the solar system is heating up
During a 2005 flyby, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took high-resolution images of Enceladus that were combined into this mosaic, which shows the long fissures at the moon’s south pole that allow water from the subsurface ocean to escape into space.

In the search for life beyond Earth, one of the most exciting potential locations to explore is Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. With its thick icy crust covering a liquid water ocean, the moon is notable both for the plumes of water spraying from its surface and the fact that it could potentially support life. Now, the search for habitable environments is heating up as astronomers discovered that Enceladus hosts phosphorus, which is an important element for life.

The research used data from the Cassini mission, which performed multiple flybys of Enceladus in the mid-2000s, investigating the water plumes and cryovolcanoes that dot its surface. The spacecraft also flew through one of the outer rings of Saturn, which carries particles that are sent out by the Enceladus plumes. While much of the Cassini data has been studied extensively, this new research is the first time that phosphorus has been detected in it.

Read more
4 of Uranus’s icy moons could have liquid water oceans
Uranus is surrounded by its four major rings and 10 of its 27 known moons in this color-added view that uses data taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998. A study featuring new modeling shows that four of Uranus’ large moons likely contain internal oceans.

When it comes to exploring planets in our solar system, most of the attention gets placed on those nearest to Earth which are easier to visit, and with powerful telescopes, we often observe the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn too. The more distant planets like Uranus and Neptune, however, are often overlooked and there's growing support among planetary scientists for sending a mission there. Now, new evidence gives even more impetus for a mission to Uranus, with a recent study showing that four of the planet's moons could host water.

Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reanalyzed data from the Voyager 2 mission which passed Uranus in the 1980s to look at the five largest of its 27 moons: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, and Miranda. Using computer modeling of how porous the surfaces are, they found that four of these moons likely have liquid water oceans beneath icy crusts.

Read more