{"id":18993,"date":"2017-04-13T20:07:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T12:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/hubble-spots-more-signs-of-europas-watery-plumes-lifting-hopes-for-habitability\/"},"modified":"2017-04-13T20:07:21","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T12:07:21","slug":"hubble-spots-more-signs-of-europas-watery-plumes-lifting-hopes-for-habitability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/hubble-spots-more-signs-of-europas-watery-plumes-lifting-hopes-for-habitability\/","title":{"rendered":"Hubble spots more signs of Europa\u2019s watery plumes, lifting hopes for habitability"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Europa
These composite images show a suspected plume of material erupting two years apart from the same location on Jupiter\u2019s icy moon Europa. Both plumes, photographed in ultraviolet light by Hubble, were seen in silhouette as the moon passed in front of Jupiter. (NASA \/ ESA \/ STScI \/ USGS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus wasn\u2019t the only ice-covered world making waves today: Scientists say Europa, a mysterious moon of Jupiter, has shown fresh signs of watery plumes that may hint at a habitable environment beneath the ice.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Hubble Space Telescope picked up observations of what appeared to be a plume of watery material, emanating from the same area where a plume was spotted in 2014.<\/p>\n

The most recent plume rises about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Europa\u2019s surface, which is twice as high as the earlier plume.<\/p>\n

The source of the activity is an unusually warm region of ice that appears to be crisscrossed by cracks, based on pictures captured in the late 1990s by NASA\u2019s Galileo spacecraft.<\/p>\n

\"Europa
The green oval highlights the plumes Hubble observed on Europa. The area also corresponds to a warm region on Europa\u2019s surface. The map is based on observations by the Galileo spacecraft. (NASA \/ ESA \/ STScI \/ USGS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe plumes on Enceladus are associated with hotter regions, so after Hubble imaged this new plume-like feature on Europa, we looked at that location on the Galileo thermal map. We discovered that Europa\u2019s plume candidate is sitting right on the thermal anomaly,\u201d William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Sparks led the Hubble plume studies in both 2014 and 2016, and he\u2019s the lead author of a report on the observations published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.<\/p>\n

Taken together, the evidence suggests that water from an ocean hidden beneath Europa\u2019s ice occasionally spews out into space through the cracks. The area may be warmed up as water passes through the cracks, or as the watery mist falls back to the surface and causes more heat to be retained.<\/p>\n

As is the case with Enceladus, such activity on Europa could point to hydrothermal processes and a potentially habitable environment deep beneath the ice.<\/p>\n

Whatever is going on down there, it doesn\u2019t seem to be going on continuously. Repeated observations in ultraviolet light, using Hubble\u2019s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, haven\u2019t always turned up evidence of plumes.<\/p>\n