Recent Studies
| "There's lots of research going on," says Dr. Bob Pappalardo, a planetary geologist at Brown University. "What I and others are doing is refining and testing models of how various surface features form. |
Missions:
-1974: a team of scientists conducting airborne research passed over the Soviet research station Vostok in Antarctica, Vostok is said to have similar conditions to that of the moon Europa
- 1979: Voyager 2 sent out to gather information and data concerning the surface conditions of the moon. Photographed from 1.2 million km away.
-1999: Galileo (on its 4 year orbit of Jupiter and its moons) releases images of large chaotic areas on Europa's surface where liquid ocean or warm ice may have collected and disrupted the moon's icy shell.
Interesting Facts: Voyager and Galileo spacecraft have shown Europa to be a frigid world dotted with remnants of cyro-volcanoes and of ice similar in appearance to those seen on Earth's polar seas during springtime thaws. As interesting as the surface sounds, Europa may be even more interesting underground. Many scientists think that tidal friction from nearby Jupiter heats the interior of the moon to temperatures where liquid water is possible. Beneath its icy crust, Europa could harbor the solar system's largest ocean.
Potential missions that have been talked about: http://www.astrobiology.com/europa/ice.clipper.html
| "Data gathered by the spectrometer during observations of Europa had shown a chemical that we couldn't identify. I kept wondering, 'What the heck is this stuff?' Lab measurements now tell us that it is sulfuric acid, and we can start investigating where it comes from and what other materials might be there." Dr. Robert Carlson the principal investigator for the near-infrared mapping spectrometer aboard Galileo. |