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Dec. 3, 1998: The large Jovian moon Europa may be hiding liquid water beneath its frozen crust. We won't know for sure until robotic explorers one day venture below the surface of that icy moon in search of oceans and possibly life. For now we must learn what we can from surface photos of Europa, like this one captured by the Galileo spacecraft, and from studies of a mysterious subterranean lake here on Earth. The picture above is a mosaic of images from Europa's southern
hemisphere. The brown, linear ridges extending across the scene
are thought to be frozen remnants of cryo-volcanic activity.
"Cryo-volcanoes" (cold volcanoes) occur when liquid
or partially frozen water erupts onto the Europan surface, freezing
instantly in the extremely low temperatures so far from our sun.
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Europa's frosty surface has intrigued scientists ever since the Voyager spacecraft missions flew through the Jupiter system in 1979. At -260° F, the moon's surface temperature could deep-freeze an ocean over several million years, but it's possible that warmth from a tidal tug of war with Jupiter and neighboring moons could be keeping large parts of Europa's ocean liquid. Tidal friction from Jupiter is also thought to be responsible for volcanic activity on Europa's neighbor Io, and for a similar underground ocean on Callisto. |
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The next best thing to being there....Many scientists would love to travel to Europa to study conditions
there first-hand, but regular flights to Jupiter probably won't
begin for some time. Meanwhile, there is an environment right
here on Earth with significant similarities to Europa and Callisto,
a place called Lake Vostok. |
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. |
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Planetary Photojournal - image of Europa Evidence for slush beneath the surface of Europa - from JPL and Brown University Galileo home page at JPL, with the latest on Europa Jet Propulsion Laboratory home page National Science Foundation - Polar Research Program (NSF supports the Vostok Ice Core Project) The Europa/Vostok Initiative - from CalTech-JPL Callisto's moon may hide a salty ocean - JPL/Galileo press release posted Oct 21. The South Pole Web Page -- news, weather, and science from the south pole (external link) |
Related Stories: 22 Oct. 1998 Callisto makes a big splash 02 Oct. 1998 Galileo gets a close-up view of mysterious Europa 12 March 1998 Exotic-looking microbes turn up in ancient Antarctic ice 13 March 1998 Space Tether may be best way to explore Europa 05 March 1998: Clues to possible life on Europa may lie buried in Antarctic ice |
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