CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — New analysis suggests there’s much less oxygen on the icy floor of Jupiter’s moon Europa than thought — and that might have an effect on what, if any, life may be lurking within the moon’s underground ocean.
Even with little or no oxygen, microbes would possibly nonetheless be bustling round within the ocean believed to exist miles beneath Europa’s frozen crust. As for what else, “who is aware of,” stated NASA scientist Kevin Hand, who was not concerned within the research revealed Monday in Nature Astronomy.
Extra work is required to verify these findings, that are opposite to earlier telescope observations of condensed oxygen in Europa’s ice, indicating a better oxygen focus, Hand stated.
A 219-mile flyby
The brand new research is predicated on knowledge collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft throughout a very shut flyby of Europa in 2022 — a distance of simply 219 miles.
A U.S.-European workforce calculated that between 13 and 39 kilos of oxygen are produced each second at Europa’s floor.
Earlier estimates had a a lot wider unfold, with as a lot as 2,245 kilos of oxygen produced per second. So “except Europa’s oxygen manufacturing was considerably larger up to now,” the brand new measurements present “a narrower vary to help habitability,” the researchers wrote.
This oxygen is fashioned, together with hydrogen, as Jupiter’s radiation blasts Europa’s world shell of frozen water.
Lead creator James Szalay of Princeton College stated Juno’s flyby was the primary time a spacecraft “instantly sniffed” Europa’s environment. “We couldn’t wait to peek behind the scenes of its advanced surroundings,” he stated in an e mail.
Whereas it’s “a considerably narrower vary than we beforehand thought, there’s nonetheless quite a bit we are able to be taught,” Szalay stated.
It’s unknown how a lot oxygen escapes into the moon’s environment, how a lot stays within the ice and the way a lot would possibly discover its approach to the subterranean sea.
NASA plans to launch the Europa Clipper this fall. The spacecraft will make dozens of shut flybys of Europa — almost the dimensions of our moon — whereas orbiting the enormous gasoline planet.
