New research suggests that slushy ice "lava" may burst from the surface of Jupiter's icy moon.
If there are lakes on the moon, NASA will be able to find them with the help of the Clipper. Their presence would mean that the global ocean scientists think there is more than one liquid water under the Jovian moon. The moon of Jupiter appears to have the potential to host life.
TheEuropa Clipper will fly past the moon around 50 times to collect data. Scientists are working to better model the water on the moon to better focus the probe.
Photos show more of Jupiter's ice-covered moon.
There are new theories about the material that erupts from the surface of Europa as "cryolava," the icy equivalent of molten lava on Earth. The work uses a new computer model to suggest that the eruptions may be the result of a lake in the crust of the planet.
The lead author of the research is a scientist at NASA's JPL in California. New insights into how deep the water is are given by our results. The water should be shallow so that multiple instruments can detect it.
The mission should be able to detect water in the upper 2.5 to 5 miles of the crust, according to the models.
The ice is at its most brittle in this area. The surrounding ice would be broken by the expansion and freezing of the pockets of water here. When placed in a freezer, this phenomenon can swell and burst.
The researchers found that the most likely way to erupt in this way is through a pancake-shaped hole.
The situation is different inside the club. The surrounding ice would also be pushed on by the subsidings. The ice is softer and less brittle because it is warmer. This is more like a balloon of water that expands and contracts as the liquid in it expands.
The radar instrument for the Europa Clipper should be able to find pockets of water when it arrives at the planet in the year 2030.
According to Don Blankenship, leader of the REASON team and ageophysicist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics in Texas, water bodies in the shallow subsurface could be unstable if stresses exceed the strength of the ice. You can see water bodies in the same places asREASON.
A paper about the team's work was published in July.
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