What can the plumes on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, teach scientists about Europa potential habitability? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated how NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, currently en route to Europa, could explore how the plumes could shed light on the moon’s subsurface ocean. This study has the potential to help scientists develop new methods for analyzing planetary processes, with a focus on searching for life beyond Earth.
For the study, the researchers evaluated a specific strategy for how Europa Clipper will search for and identify plumes across Europa’s surface. The team envisions this can be accomplished through data obtained and quickly analyzed during the early days of the mission. They discuss data obtained from past missions, specifically Voyager, Galileo, and the currently-active Juno missions, and how this can contribute to Europa Clipper successfully identifying plumes. This new strategy will be important since more than half of Europa’s surface isn’t mapped due to the high-gain antenna on the Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s becoming inoperative during its mission.
The study notes, “After arriving in the Jovian system, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will systematically search for and constrain plume activity utilizing a variety of investigations and methods. Plume-generating processes could give rise to three primary signatures detectable by Europa Clipper during an integrated plume search: water vapor and other vented gases, including their plasma and field effects; particles made of ice and other materials, including surface deposits of particles and condensed gases; and surface thermal anomalies (“hot spots”).”
As noted, Europa Clipper is currently en route to Europa with an estimated arrival date of April 2030. The goal of Europa Clipper will be to investigate the habitability potential of the small moon, specifically regarding its subsurface liquid water ocean, along with determining adequate landing sites for a future proposed Europa Lander.
What new discoveries about Europa’s plumes will Europa Clipper make in the coming years? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: The Planetary Science Journal
Featured Illustration Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/USRA/David Ladd
