Jupiter’s Moon Europa May Hold Carbon in Ocean Beneath Its Icy Shell [Study]

Jupiter, the biggest planet in the solar system, has dozens of moons; among the most popular is Europa. A new study suggests that it may contain carbon dioxide.

Jupiter's Moon Europa Contains Carbon

A detailed study by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggests that Europa's ocean contains carbon dioxide, one of the six elements vital to life, along with hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur.

According to Gerónimo Villanueva, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and co-author of one of two new papers reporting the JWST findings, what they found from the icy moon was more than they expected. The quick observations made use of the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument on JWST, which is designed to record spectra-barcode-like measurements that quantify the amount of light at various wavelengths that can be translated into knowledge about the chemical composition, temperature, and other properties of the light's source.

The CO2 ice that NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter had discovered on Europa's surface during flybys of the moon before the spacecraft's destruction in 2003 piqued the scientists' curiosity. However, it remains unclear where the element came from and whether the moon can support life.

According to Samantha Trumbo, a planetary scientist at Cornell University and co-author of one of the two new studies on JWST's observations, it was unclear whether the carbon was coming from inside Europa or maybe from somewhere else. She also found the JWST data intriguing because it reveals that the carbon they can genuinely analyze on Europa's surface comes from the interior. At the very least, it provides compelling proof of carbon in the water.

Trumbo, Villanueva, and their associates were interested in learning whether Europa's surface CO2 deposits came from reserves of the gas dissolved in the shadowy waters of the subsurface ocean, which is tucked between the moon's rocky core and the ice that lies above it. Another similarity between Europa's ocean and the deep-sea hydrothermal vent systems on Earth, where some scientists think life first developed, would result from such a scenario.

ALSO READ: NASA's Juno Spacecraft Frequently Encounters Giant Swirling Waves at Boundary Between Solar Wind, Jupiter's Magnetosphere [Study]

What Is Europa?

Europa is one of the over 90 moons found in Jupiter. It's the sixth closest moon to the planet and orbits it every 3.5 days.

Europa's elliptic orbit prompts it to orbit Jupiter at different distances, and the close side of the moon is more heavily affected by Jupiter's gravity than the far side. As Europa rotates, the size of this discrepancy fluctuates, causing tides to stretch and relax the moon's surface.

The moon's surface fissures are probably caused by flexing from the tides. If an ocean is on Europa, tidal heating may also trigger volcanic or hydrothermal activity on the seafloor, releasing nutrients and enabling the ocean to support life.

Europa has a water-ice crust and an iron-nickel core and is mainly formed of silicate rock. It has a fragile atmosphere that is mostly made of oxygen. Its surface is striated with cracks and streaks; however, there are few craters. According to scientists, a salty ocean with roughly twice as much water as the ocean at large on Earth is probably certainly present beneath the icy surface of Europa.

One of the most intriguing locations in our solar system to locate current circumstances conducive to life beyond Earth may be Europa. NASA is launching the Europa Clipper spacecraft to Europa to find out if it can sustain life.