2024-03-06 20:45:42
This view of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa was captured by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s upcoming flyby on September 29, 2022. The agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will study the moon when it reaches Jupiter orbit in 2030. Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Kevin M. Gill CC BY 3.0
The icy Jovian moon produces 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours – enough to keep a million people breathing for a day.
Scientists with NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter have calculated the rate of oxygen production on the Jovian moon Europa to be significantly lower than most previous studies. Published March 4 in Astronomy of natureThe findings were derived by measuring the release of hydrogen from the icy moon’s surface using data collected by the spacecraft’s Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument.
The authors of the paper estimate the amount of oxygen produced to be around 26 pounds per second (12 kilograms per second). Previous estimates range from a few pounds to more than 2,000 pounds per second (over 1,000 kilograms per second). Scientists believe that some of the oxygen produced in this way could make its way into the moon’s subsurface ocean as a possible source of metabolic energy.
Europe’s life potential
With an equatorial diameter of 1,940 miles (3,100 kilometers), Europa is the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 known moons and the smallest of the four Galilean satellites. Scientists believe that a vast internal ocean of salty water lurks beneath its icy crust, and are curious about the potential for life-supporting conditions to exist below the surface.
Not only water has the attention of astrobiologists: the position of the Jubian moon also plays an important role in the biological possibilities. Europa’s orbit places it right in the middle of the gas giant’s radiation belts. Charged, or ionized, particles from Jupiter bombard the icy surface, splitting water molecules in half to create oxygen that could find its way into the moon’s ocean.
This figure shows charged particles from Jupiter impacting Europa’s surface, splitting frozen water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen molecules. Scientists believe some of these new oxygen gases may migrate toward the moon’s subsurface ocean, as depicted in the inset image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/PU
“Europa is like an ice ball slowly losing its water in a flowing stream. Except in this case, the stream is a fluid of ionized particles being swept around Jupiter by its unusual magnetic field,” said JADE scientist Jamie Slay of Princeton University in New York. Razi. “When these ionized particles hit Europa, they break the water-ice molecule by molecule at the surface to produce hydrogen and oxygen. In a sense, the entire ice sheet is constantly being eroded by waves of charged particles washing over it.”
The capture of the bomb
When Juno flew within 220 miles (354 km) of Europa at 2:36 p.m. PDT on September 29, 2022, JADE detected and measured hydrogen and oxygen ions produced by the bombardment of the charged particles and then “captured” by the magnets of Jupiter fields as it passes the moon.
“When NASA’s Galileo mission flew by Europa, it opened our eyes to the complex and dynamic interaction Europa has with its environment. Juno brought a new ability to directly measure the composition of charged particles pouring out of Europa’s atmosphere, and we couldn’t wait to take another peek behind the curtain of this exciting water world,” said Szalay. “But what we didn’t realize was that Juno’s observations would give us such a tight limit on the amount of oxygen produced on the icy surface of Europa.”
Juno carries 11 state-of-the-art science instruments designed to study the Jovian system, including nine charged particle and electromagnetic wave sensors for studying Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
“Our ability to fly close to the Galilean satellites during our extended mission allowed us to begin tackling a wide range of science, including some unique opportunities to contribute to the study of Europa’s habitability,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator of the Southwest Research Institute. in San Antonio. “And we’re not done yet. More lunar flights and the first exploration of Jupiter’s nearest ring and polar atmosphere are yet to come.”
Oxygen production is one of many aspects that NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will investigate when it reaches Jupiter in 2030. The mission has a sophisticated payload of nine science instruments to determine whether Europa has conditions that could be suitable for life.
Now Bolton and the rest of the Juno mission team are setting their sights on another Jupiter world, the volcanic moon Io. On April 9, the spacecraft will reach a distance of about 10,250 miles (16,500 kilometers) from its surface. The data Juno is collecting will add to findings from past flybys, including two very close approaches of about 932 miles (1,500 kilometers) on Dec. 30, 2023, and Feb. 3, 2024.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, which is managed by at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) funded the Jovian Infra Red Auroral Mapper. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
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