The Moon of Jupiter Captured by Hubble

Hubble Telescope brings amazing photos again, this time capturing the moon of Jupiter. Lately, many discoveries from and about the cosmos shocked us. NASA’s help coming from Hubble has always been triggering our curiosity about the unknown planets, stars, and comets.  This time, the telescope analyzed Jupiter’s satellite called Europa. It appears that Hubble had discovered vapors of water gushing out of Europa’s surface.

Although the moon of Jupiter is all covered up in ice, water jets erupted, measuring almost 125 miles. This splashes of water are thought to come from the ocean situated under the surface. The Astrophysical Journal will publish the discovery.  The research triggered scientists’ desire to investigate this matter even more. They are bound to find out if this icy planet can sustain life.

William Sparks, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, declared that he wants to closely analyze the vapors of water emerging from Europa’s surface. The gushing water can only mean that, at some point, astronomers will be able to explore the subsurface ocean.

The oceans situated underneath Europa’s frosty surface contain twice as much water as Terra’s oceans do. Europa was compared to Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. They were both thought to hide oceans beneath their surface. Experts trust the possibility that these waters might have the proper composition to sustain life. Astronomers have already proved the existence of hydrothermal eruptions on Enceladus. The same type of geysers supplies underwater microbial life with fertile Earth.

The eruptions of water which might drive scientists to discover oceans on Enceladus were already registered. Tidal waves might have determined the gushing water to come through cracks. NASA’s spaceship, Cassini, has managed to take samples from these waters. Scientists argue that proving the existence of water eruptions on the moon of Jupiter is more difficult.

A researcher from Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences called Britney Schmidt stated that the geology from Enceladus made obvious the splashes of water exist. On the other hand, on Europa, the activity registered all over its surface made it difficult for experts to precisely determine these geysers. Previous studies attested the existence of geysers on Europa’s southern pole, back in 2012. This study was conducted Lorenz Roth and his team from the Southwest Research Institute.

If scientists would claim to have found life on this moon, would you believe that or would you expect to see some samples that proved it?

Image source: wikipedia