Another point of interest for the Europa Clipper mission to investigate in 2030.
Jupiter's icy moon Europa is one of the most intriguing targets in the search for potentially habitable regions of our Solar System., and the space agency's Europa Clipper spacecraft will soon launch on a mission specifically designed to investigate Jupiter's celestial neighbor.The reason behind this is the fact that strong evidence suggests there is a massive ocean beneath Europa's thick, icy crust that could potentially be habitable.
NASA scientists used computer simulations to show that any eruptions would likely come from these liquid reservoirs instead of from the ocean deep below the icy surface. "We demonstrated that plumes or cryolava flows could mean there are shallow liquid reservoirs below, which Europa Clipper would be able to detect," explained Elodie Lesage, Europa scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the research. "Our results give new insights into how deep the water might be that's driving surface activity, including plumes.
"The new work shows that water bodies in the shallow subsurface could be unstable if stresses exceed the strength of the ice and could be associated with plumes rising above the surface," explained Don Blankenship of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics in Austin, Texas, who leads the radar instrument team. "That means REASON could be able to see water bodies in the same places that you see plumes.