Jupiter's moon is covered in strange ridges and may be the result of the refreezing of shallow pockets of liquid water.
By Leah Crane.
One of Jupiter's moons has a surface criss-crossed by multiple ridges.
JPL/ASU.
Jupiter's moon is covered in ridges. Researchers found a similar feature in Greenland and used it to understand how ridges form in the ocean.
It has been difficult for researchers to explain how the ridges came about because we don't have any data on what is happening under the surface.
The structure of the ice shell is a mystery to us at the moment.
Culberg spotted a pair of ridges in satellite images. He and his colleagues found that there were pockets of liquid water within the ice sheet. When some of that water refreezes, it expands, creating cracks in the ground and pressingurising the remaining water, which pushes upwards on either side of the refrozen section. The parallel ridges are caused by the upwelling.
If the ridges are created the same way, it means there is shallow water within the ice shell.
If there is a lot of shallow water in the ice shell, it means there has to be some kind of exchange between the ocean and the surface.
Nature Communications is a journal.
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