Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has long been considered one of the most habitable worlds in the solar system.
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Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has long been considered one of the most habitable worlds in the solar system. Now, the Juno mission to Jupiter has sampled Jupiter’s atmosphere directly and in detail for the first time. result, Published in Nature Astronomysuggesting that Europa’s icy surface produces less oxygen than we thought.
There are many reasons to be excited about the possibility of discovering microbial life on Europa.Evidence from the Galileo mission suggests that the Moon There is an ocean Beneath its icy surface, it contains about twice as much water as Earth’s oceans. Additionally, models derived from Europa data show that its seafloor is in contact with rock, allowing for water-rock chemical interactions, generate energymaking it a prime candidate for life.
Meanwhile, telescopic observations revealed faint, oxygen-rich atmosphere.It also looks like water jet eruption It came intermittently from the ocean.and there is some evidence that there is basic chemical elements Materials on the surface – including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur – are used by life on Earth. Some of it may leach into water from the atmosphere and surface.
Europa and its oceans are warming in part thanks to Jupiter’s orbiting moons, which generate tidal forces that heat the otherwise cold environment.
Although Europa has the three basic ingredients for life—water, the right chemical elements, and a source of heat—we don’t yet know if there was enough time for life to develop.
Another prime candidate in our solar system is Mars, the 2028 target of the Rosalind Franklin rover. Maybe it started on Mars Same as on Earth, but then probably stopped due to climate change.
A third candidate is Saturn’s moon Enceladus, where the Cassini-Huygens mission discovered plumes of water from an underground Aral sea, Also in contact with rocks Under the sea.
Titans were the closest runners-up at fourth, with its strong atmosphere Organic compounds, including hydrocarbons and tholins, are born in the upper atmosphere. They then float to the surface and coat their surface with lifelong ingredients.
lose oxygen
Juno mission has The best charged particle instrument Sent to Jupiter so far. It measures the energy, direction and composition of surface-charged particles.There are similar instruments on Saturn and Titan DISCOVER TOLLINS (an organic substance) is there. But in addition to Titan and Enceladus, they also measured particles that indicate the presence of atmospheres on Saturn’s moons Rhea and Enceladus.
These particles are called Pick up ions. A planet’s atmosphere is made up of neutral particles, but the top of the atmosphere becomes “ionized” (meaning loses electrons) in sunlight and through collisions with other particles, forming ions (charged atoms that have lost electrons) and free electrons.
When plasma (a charged gas that constitutes a fourth state of matter beyond solids, liquids, and gases) flows through an atmosphere containing newly formed ions, it disturbs the atmosphere with an electric field that accelerates the new ions (the ions’ Part One) Pickup Process.
These pick-up ions then orbit the planet’s magnetic field and typically disappear from the atmosphere, while some hit the surface and are absorbed. The pickup process has cleared particles from the Martian atmosphere after the red planet’s magnetic field disappeared 3.8 billion years ago.
Europa also has a pick-up and drop-off process. The new measurements show clear signs of uptake of molecular oxygen and hydrogen ions from the surface and atmosphere. Some of them escaped Europa, while others struck the icy surface, increasing oxygen levels both on and below the surface.
This confirms that oxygen and hydrogen are indeed the main components of Europa’s atmosphere – consistent with remote observations. However, measurements show that the amount of oxygen released from the surface into the atmosphere is only about 12 kilograms per second, below earlier estimates of about 5 kilograms to 1,100 kilograms per second.
This indicates very little surface erosion. Measurements show that Europa’s surface may be as small as 1.5 centimeters per million years, which is less than we thought. As a result, Europa is constantly losing oxygen due to absorption processes, with only small amounts of additional oxygen being released from the surface to replenish the oxygen and eventually return to the surface.
So what does this mean for its chances of bearing life? Some of the oxygen trapped at the surface may find its way into underground oceans, nourishing any life there. But based on the study’s estimate of overall oxygen loss, this should be less than the previously estimated 0.3kg-300kg per second.
It remains to be seen whether the ratio recorded on September 29, 2022 is normal. Maybe it doesn’t represent the overall oxygen content on the moon. Plume eruptions, orbital positions, and upstream conditions may increase and decrease the rate at certain times, respectively.
NASA’s Europa Clipper MissionThe Juice mission, due to launch later this year and will fly by Europa twice on its way around Ganymede, will be able to track these measurements and provide more information about Europa’s habitability.
(author:Andrew CoatesProfessor of Physics, Deputy Director (Solar System) of Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London)
(Disclosure Statement:Andrew Coates receives funding from STFC and UKSA (UK).
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