NASA’s latest discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope continues to find water vapor on Jupiter’s icy European moon. This water vapor looks like a 60-mile-high geyser.
However, scientists are confused as to why this phenomenon only occurs on one side of Jupiter’s moon.
According to Europa, Jupiter has up to 79 moons. About 26 of them are waiting for an official name. The researchers were particularly interested in the first four identified moons, specifically Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, of the 53 named moons.
It is believed that Europe’s icy surface in particular hides the vast oceans. Depending on the circumstances, the moon can provide suitable living conditions. NASA experts are currently studying the moon to lay the groundwork for future space missions.
Hubble finds evidence of sustained water vapor in parts of Jupite’s moon Europa
This image of Jupiter’s moon in Europa was taken in June 1997 at a distance of 776,700 miles from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft. Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and has a very smooth surface, and the hard ice sheet resembles a cracked eggshell. The interior of the country has global oceans with more water than on Earth. It can accommodate life as we know it.
NASA’s Hubble sees water vapor in Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon
Lorenz Roth, a researcher at the Royal KTH Institute of Technology in Stockholm, said NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope detected water vapor in the southern hemisphere of the Ionian Moon. Water vapor is only on the side that monitors the gas giant throughout its orbit.
The scientists estimated this uneven distribution of water vapor using computer simulations. The space agency was surprised to see this phenomenon for the first time.
Roth published his study entitled “Stable H2O Atmosphere in the European Hemisphere Tracking HST Images” in Roth’s “Letters on Geophysical Research”. The discovery came after the discovery of water vapor in the atmosphere of Ganymede, one of Jupiter`s four moons.
Is the water vapor moving to other areas?
In a video, NASA finds that water vapor has spread over a wider area. Also, this is an unusual observation from Europa, showing a new behavior on the moon where water vapor is spread over a wider area.
The discovery surprised NASA, not least because it showed that water vapor is concentrated in one place or hemisphere, rather than spreading around the world.
To detect water vapor, Roth looked at data from the Hubble Space Telescope from 1999, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Data was collected using an imaging spectrograph (STIS) from the space telescope.
Astronomers can use STIS to determine the chemical elements that make up the atmosphere of a planet or moon. Hubble Space Telescope sensors are also used to identify oxygen in the European atmosphere.
Temporary phenomenon
Water vapor used to be found in the atmosphere of Europa. But astronomers attribute it to a jet that exploded violently through the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon. As a result, water vapor is sent up to 100 kilometers into the European atmosphere.
Researchers call the water vapor “temporary”, according to Newsweek, because it lasts only a few seconds and is confined to a few places in Europe.The presence of water vapor in the atmosphere of Europe appears to be constant, meaning that it is always present. It also dominated a much larger area than previously thought.
Other icy satellites in Europa and Jupiter will be explored in the near future by ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission. JUICE is expected to launch in 2022 and reach the Jupiter system in 2031.
The probe will be equipped with advanced sensors used beyond Mars and the inner planets.NASA’s Europa Clipper will explore Europa in search of evidence of life on the moon.
But what is it?
This time, however, NASA saw it spread out over a larger region, which surprised the space agency after a decade of lunar observations. Also, this is a kind of European observation showing the new behavior of the moon due to more water vapor in the region.
NASA is concerned about this discovery, primarily because it only shows that water vapor remains in one place or hemisphere and does not spread to other places.
The space agency was surprised by this phenomenon, especially since water and gas are known to be free matter.
What does it mean?
Europe now has a phenomenon that converts solid ice directly into water vapor and, compared to Earth, does not have a liquid state like water. NASA suspects this is because it is a cold environment far from the Sun and has billions of surface pressures compared to Earth.
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