NASA | JPL-Caltech | Galileo | 2018 May 14
Scientists re-examining data from an old mission bring new insights to the tantalizing question of whether Jupiter's moon Europa has the ingredients to support life. The data provide independent evidence that the moon's subsurface liquid water reservoir may be venting plumes of water vapor above its icy shell.Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Data collected by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in 1997 were put through new and advanced computer models to untangle a mystery -- a brief, localized bend in themagnetic field -- that had gone unexplained until now. Previous ultraviolet images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 2012 suggested the presence of plumes, but this new analysis used data collected much closer to the source and is considered strong, corroborating support for plumes. ...
Evidence of a Plume on Europa from Galileo Magnetic and Plasma Wave Signatures - Xianzhe Jia et al
- Nature Astronomy (online 14 May 2018) DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0450-z