A building block of life may exist inside the global ocean on Europa, one of Jupiter\u2019s icy moons. <\/p>\n
Two independent teams of astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the frozen surface of Europa, and each analysis of the space observatory\u2019s detections revealed an abundance of carbon dioxide within a specific region of the frigid terrain. Both studies describing the findings were published September 21 in the journal Science. <\/p>\n
\u201cOn Earth, life likes chemical diversity \u2014 the more diversity, the better. We\u2019re carbon-based life. Understanding the chemistry of Europa\u2019s ocean will help us determine whether it\u2019s hostile to life as we know it, or if it might be a good place for life,\u201d said Geronimo Villanueva, lead author of the first study and planetary scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement. <\/p>\n
Europa is one of several ocean worlds in our solar system besides Earth where scientists believe life could exist. Beneath a thick ice shell, Europa harbors a subsurface global ocean that may contain twice as much water as our planet\u2019s oceans. <\/p>\n
But environments suitable for life need more than water \u2014 they also require a supply of organic molecules and an energy source, according to NASA. <\/p>\n
Scientists have long questioned whether Europa\u2019s ocean contained carbon and other chemicals necessary for life. <\/p>\n
When Webb data revealed the presence of carbon on Europa\u2019s surface, the researchers conducted an analysis to see whether it was delivered by meteorites, or if it originated within the internal ocean. <\/p>\n
Carbon dioxide appears to be concentrated in a region of \u201cchaos terrain\u201d on Europa called Tara Regio. The geologically young area contains ice that has been disrupted and resurfaced, suggesting that material has been exchanged between the ocean and the surface. <\/p>\n
Carbon dioxide isn\u2019t stable on Europa\u2019s surface, which also led the two teams to the same conclusion that it was supplied by the ocean. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe now think that we have observational evidence that the carbon we see on Europa\u2019s surface came from the ocean. That\u2019s not a trivial thing. Carbon is a biologically essential element,\u201d said Samantha Trumbo, lead author of the second study and a 51 Pegasi B Fellow at Cornell University, in a statement. <\/p>\n
Previously, the Hubble Space Telescope detected ocean-derived salt in the same region. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe think this implies that the carbon probably has its ultimate origin in the internal ocean,\u201d Trumbo said. <\/p>\n
Astronomers used data from Webb\u2019s Near-Infrared Spectrograph to identify the signature of carbon dioxide on the moon\u2019s surface. <\/p>\n
\u201cScientists are debating how much Europa\u2019s ocean connects to its surface. I think that question has been a big driver of Europa exploration,\u201d Villanueva said. \u201cThis suggests that we may be able to learn some basic things about the ocean\u2019s composition even before we drill through the ice to get the full picture.\u201d <\/p>\n
Previously, astronomers made tentative detections of plumes erupting from the surface of Europa using the Hubble Space Telescope. Webb did not detect any plumes during its observations of Europa, but that doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t occur, according to the researchers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always a possibility that these plumes are variable and that you can only see them at certain times. All we can say with 100% confidence is that we did not detect a plume at Europa when we made these observations with Webb,\u201d said Heidi Hammel, a Webb interdisciplinary scientist and vice president for science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in a statement. <\/p>\n
Two future missions will be able to take a closer look at Europa in the future, including the European Space Agency\u2019s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer launched in April and NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper, expected to lift off in October 2024. <\/p>\n
Both will investigate Europa\u2019s potential habitability to see whether the icy ocean world could be hospitable to life. <\/p>\n
Future observations of Europa with the Webb Telescope could help astronomers determine whether there are other concentrated regions of carbon dioxide on the surface, Trumbo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am also very interested in whether there is any evidence for organic molecules anywhere on the surface,\u201d she said. \u201cOur upcoming JWST data will help with that as well, but Europa Clipper will be able to get up close and personal and really peer at some of the finer-scale and most promising geologic regions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
A building block of life may exist inside the global ocean on Europa, one of Jupiter\u2019s icy moons. Two independent teams of astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the frozen surface of Europa, and each analysis of the space observatory\u2019s detections revealed an abundance of carbon dioxide within a specific region of <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}