Water Vapor Was Just Found on Europa, More Evidence There’s Liquid Water Beneath All that Ice
What’s been long-suspected has now been confirmed: Jupiter’s moon Europa has water. As we’ve learned more about the outer Solar System in recent years, Europa has become a high-priority target in the search for life. With this discovery, NASA has just painted a big red bulls-eye on Jupiter’s smallest Galilean moon.
Prior to this discovery, scientists already had some evidence that Europa has the potential to harbor life. The moon has the smoothest surface of any object in the Solar System, which led scientists to hypothesize that it had liquid water in a subsurface ocean, kept above freezing by tidal flexing from Jupiter. That tidal flexing not only keeps the water in liquid form, it creates ice plate movement similar to tectonic plates on Earth, according to the hypothesis.
More evidence came from studying the brown splotches on Europa’s surface. Scientists hypothesized that those are chemicals from the subsurface ocean which have made their way to the surface. This shows that the sea floor might be interacting with the surface, an important consideration when thinking about habitability.
It's been a long time coming. After lots of tantalizing hints, scientists confirm that they've finally found water vapor at Europa. Liquid next?
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