” If there are pockets of water under the ridges, we have the right instruments to see them,” stated Dustin Schroeder, a Stanford University associate professor and coauthor of a brand-new research study released in the journal Nature Communications that compares Greenlands “double ridges” with those of Europa.
According to proof gathered this far, researchers believe that Europa has a deep liquid ocean hid behind an ice shell that may be 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick. Because the ice on the moon is so thick, one great mystery is whether anything from the deep ocean reaches the surface– or whether contact takes place the other way around, with surface things filtering down to the ocean water.
The surface geology of Jupiters icy moon Europa is on display in this view made from images taken by NASAs Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
“It would suggest the ice shell on Europa is extremely vibrant. It could assist in exchange procedures between the surface area and the subsurface ocean.
Prospective life-sustaining nutrients on Europas surface area– possibly transferred there by another Jupiter moon, volcanic Io– might find their method to the subsurface ocean, he stated. And chemicals or other material from the subsurface showing a habitable ocean environment might wind up on the surface area.
How Ridges May Have Formed
During a discussion on Europas ridges, the studys lead author, Stanford graduate trainee Riley Culberg, stated he observed comparable landforms in Greenland. Ice-penetrating radar information gathered from 2015 to 2017 by NASAs Operation IceBridge, an aerial observation campaign, showed not just the existence of a double ridge in northwestern Greenland, but likewise details of how it progressed.
The double ridges observed on the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet formed when water from close-by surface lakes drained pipes into a layer of impermeable ice within the ice sheet. Once there, the water pocket refroze and fractured the overlying ice, requiring peaks to increase on either side.
A double ridge cutting across the surface area of Europa is seen in this mosaic of 2 images taken by NASAs Galileo during the spacecrafts close flyby on Feb. 20, 1997. Analysis of a comparable function in Greenland recommends shallow liquid water may be common throughout the Jovian moons icy shell. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU
Something comparable might be happening on Europa, however instead with water required up towards the surface area from the subsurface ocean. The ridge features on Europa, while comparable to the Greenland ridges, are much bigger and with taller peaks, perhaps due in part to lower gravity on Europa.
Europa Clippers REASON instrument is developed to make the very same sort of measurements at Europa that the IceBridge radar made in Greenland. Both use radio waves that can penetrate deeply into ice. The same waves, nevertheless, can not permeate liquid water and are instead shown back to the radar instrument. Water appears as an intense spot in the radar images. These radargrams can for that reason offer a vertical profile of water and ice deep listed below the surface area.
” You get reflections that are a thousand times brighter for water rather than ice,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder, a co-investigator on REASON and part of a group that studies Europas interior, said the new study could assist the Europa Clipper team design observations to determine whether the ridges on the moon and in Greenland occurred from the exact same underlying causes– and whether water pockets are typical within Europas icy shell.
The research study likewise highlights the growing synergy between researchers who study our planetary next-door neighbors in the solar system and those who focus on Earth.
” This research will help us either use Earth to understand what we will see on Europa or, when we get to Europa, help us interpret what we see when we arrive,” Schroeder stated.
For more on this research, see Breaking News in Search for Extraterrestrial Life: Evidence of Water Near Europas Surface.
Reference: “Double ridge development over shallow water sills on Jupiters moon Europa” by Riley Culberg, Dustin M. Schroeder and Gregor Steinbrügge, 19 April 2022, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/ s41467-022-29458-3.
More About the Mission.
Missions such as Europa Clipper add to the field of astrobiology, the interdisciplinary research study on the variables and conditions of remote worlds that might harbor life as we understand it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will perform detailed reconnaissance of Europa and examine whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the ability to support life. Comprehending Europas habitability will help scientists much better understand how life established on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.
Handled by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the advancement of the Europa Clipper objective in collaboration with APL for NASAs Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, carries out program management of the Europa Clipper mission.
“It would imply the ice shell on Europa is incredibly dynamic. A double ridge cutting across the surface area of Europa is seen in this mosaic of two images taken by NASAs Galileo throughout the spacecrafts close flyby on Feb. 20, 1997. Europa Clippers REASON instrument is designed to make the very same kind of measurements at Europa that the IceBridge radar made in Greenland. Missions such as Europa Clipper contribute to the field of astrobiology, the interdisciplinary research on the variables and conditions of remote worlds that could harbor life as we understand it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct comprehensive reconnaissance of Europa and examine whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life.
This artists conception demonstrates how double ridges on the surface area of Jupiters moon Europa might form over shallow, refreezing water pockets within the ice shell. This mechanism is based on the research study of an analogous double ridge function discovered on Earths Greenland Ice Sheet. Credit: Justice Blaine Wainwright
Parallel ice ridges, a typical function on Jupiters moon Europa, are discovered on Greenlands ice sheet– and could bode well for Europas potential habitability.
Europas icy shell might be filled with pockets of water since of the striking resemblance parallel ice ridges in Greenland bear to ridges on Jupiters ice-encased moon.
This similarity may significantly boost the chances of NASAs Europa Clipper mission finding potentially habitable environments on the Jovian moon. The ice-penetrating radar sensor REASON (short for Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface) aboard the spacecraft will be preferably suited for performing such a search.
