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

By Georgina Torbet March 5, 2024

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.

“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.

Topics

Tech News

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…

Space

Key ingredient for life found at Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus

Water from the subsurface ocean of Saturn’s moon Enceladus sprays from huge fissures out into space.

When scientists search for places beyond Earth that could potentially host life, they don't only consider far-off exoplanets. They are also interested in locations right here in our solar system -- and some of the most promising locations are not planets but moons. Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, for example, is thought to host a saltwater ocean beneath a thick icy crust, making it a potential location where life could exist.

Recently, researchers have found a key ingredient for life in the plumes of water that spew from Enceladus's surface. By analyzing data from the Cassini mission, they not only identified hydrogen cyanide but also found that the moon has a source of chemical energy that could fuel life as well.

Space

The moon may be 40 million years older than we thought

Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt collects a sample from the Moon in 1972

A recent study has suggested that the moon may be much older than previously thought. Researchers working on samples collected by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972 have performed an analysis that suggests the moon may be as much as 4.46 billion years old, which is 40 million years older than previous estimates.

The research was performed on zircon crystals, which are small trace mineral crystals found with the sample of dusty material from the moon's surface, called regolith. “This study is a testament to immense technological progress we have made since 1972 when the last manned moon mission returned to Earth,” said one of the researchers, Dieter Isheim of Northwestern University, in a statement. “These samples were brought to Earth half-a-century ago, but only today do we have the necessary tools to perform microanalysis at the requisite level, including atom-probe tomography.”

Space

James Webb spots carbon dioxide on Europa, supporting theory of habitability

Webb’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) captured a picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa.

As well as looking out into distant star systems, the James Webb Space Telescope also observes targets right here in our own solar system -- and recently it has made an intriguing discovery about Europa, the moon of Jupiter. Europa is a location of great interest to scientists because it is one of the most likely places in the solar system to support life beyond Earth, and new findings could make that possibility more likely.

From orbit, Europa appears icy, but previous observations like those made by Hubble in 2012 showed that there were plumes of water erupting from the surface -- suggesting that there is a liquid water ocean beneath the thick, icy crust. This salty ocean is a prime target for habitability research, but it wasn't known whether this ocean contained the carbon-related materials that are needed for life.