Jupiter’s moon Europa: An Ocean Moon Thought to Be Habitable May Be Oxygen-Starved
Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2024 10:15 pm
An Ocean Moon Thought to Be Habitable May Be Oxygen-Starved
A new study suggests that the amount of the element on the moon of Jupiter is on the lower end of previous estimates.
Jupiter’s moon Europa: its icy shell functions like a lung, researchers say.
Read more here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/04/scie ... xygen.html
Under its bright, frosty shell, Jupiter’s moon Europa is thought to harbor a salty ocean, making it a world that might be one of the most habitable places in our solar system.
But life as we know it needs oxygen. And it’s an open question whether Europa’s ocean has it.
Now, astronomers have nailed down how much of the molecule gets made at the icy moon’s surface, which could be a source of oxygen for the waters below. Using data from NASA’s Juno mission, the results, published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that the frozen world generates less oxygen than some astronomers may have hoped for.
“It’s on the lower end of what we would expect,” said Jamey Szalay, a plasma physicist at Princeton University who led the study. But “it’s not totally prohibitive” for habitability, he added.
A new study suggests that the amount of the element on the moon of Jupiter is on the lower end of previous estimates.
Jupiter’s moon Europa: its icy shell functions like a lung, researchers say.
Read more here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/04/scie ... xygen.html
Under its bright, frosty shell, Jupiter’s moon Europa is thought to harbor a salty ocean, making it a world that might be one of the most habitable places in our solar system.
But life as we know it needs oxygen. And it’s an open question whether Europa’s ocean has it.
Now, astronomers have nailed down how much of the molecule gets made at the icy moon’s surface, which could be a source of oxygen for the waters below. Using data from NASA’s Juno mission, the results, published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that the frozen world generates less oxygen than some astronomers may have hoped for.
“It’s on the lower end of what we would expect,” said Jamey Szalay, a plasma physicist at Princeton University who led the study. But “it’s not totally prohibitive” for habitability, he added.