admin Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of thefew worlds in our solarsystem that could potentially harbor conditions suitable for life. Previous research has shown that beneath its icyshell lies an ocean of salty liquid water with a rocky bottom. However, planetary scientists have not yet confirmed whether this ocean contains the chemicals necessary for life, especially carbon.
Astronomers using data from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope have identified carbon dioxide in a specific area on the icy surface of Europa. Analysis indicates that this carbon likely camefrom the subsurface ocean and was not supplied by meteorites or other external sources.Furthermore, it was deposited at a recent geologicalscale.The discovery has important implications for the habitability of Europe’soceans.
“On Earth, life likes chemical diversity:the more diversity, the better. Ourlivesarebasedoncarbon. Understanding the chemistry of Europa’s ocean will help us determine whether itis hostile to life as we know it or whether it could be a good place for life,” said Geronimo Villanueva of Flight Goddard universesaid. of abook. of two independent articles describing the results.
“We now believe we have observational evidence that the carbon we see on Europa’s surface comes from the ocean. Thisis not a trivial thing. Carbon is a biologically essential element,” adds Samantha Trumbo of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, lead author of the second paper analyzing this data.
NASA plans to launch the Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will perform dozens of flybys of Europa to further study whether it has conditions suitable for life, in October 2024.
A surface-oceanconnection
Webb discoversit on EuropaOnthe surface, carbon dioxide is most abundant in anarea called Tara Regio,a geologically young regionwhosetopographyisoftenreconstructedcalled”ChaoticTerrain”.The surface ice wasdisturbed and there wasprobably an exchange of material between the subsurface ocean and the icy surface. “These observations areimportanttous,” said Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, aninterdisciplinary Webb scientist whois leading Cycle 1 of the Webbsolarsystem’stime-secureobservations.Thisobservationonlytakesupafewminutesoftheobservatory’stime. “Even in this short time, we havebeen able to carryoutverylargescientificstudies. This work provides a first lookat all the amazing solarsystem science wecan do with Webb.
These resultscould help inform NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, as well as ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons rover, Juice, launched on April 14, 2023.Juice will make detailed observations of the gas giant and its three large oceanmoons–Ganymede, Callisto and Europa–with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments. The mission will characterize these moons as both planetary bodies and possible habitats, deeply explore Jupiter’s complex environment, and study the broader Jupiter system as prototypeplanets gas giants throughout the Universe.
