vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Greenland Ice, Jupiter Moon Share Similar Feature – NASA's Europa Clipper
Because the ice is so substantial, a big question about the moon is whether anything from the deep ocean makes contact with the surface – or if contact goes the other way, with surface material filtering down to the ocean water.
“It’s exciting, what it would mean if you have plenty of water within the ice shell,” said coauthor Gregor Steinbrügge, a former Stanford researcher who is now a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It would mean the ice shell on Europa is extremely dynamic. It could facilitate exchange processes between the surface and the subsurface ocean. It could go in both directions.”
Potential life-sustaining nutrients on Europa’s surface – perhaps deposited there by another Jupiter moon, volcanic Io – might find their way to the subsurface ocean, he said. And chemicals or other material from the subsurface indicating a habitable ocean environment could end up on the surface.
How Ridges May Have Formed
During a presentation on Europa’s ridges, the study’s lead author, Stanford graduate student Riley Culberg, said he noticed similar landforms in Greenland. Ice-penetrating radar data collected from 2015 to 2017 by NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an aerial observation campaign, showed not only the existence of a double ridge in northwestern Greenland, but also details of how it evolved.
The double ridges observed on the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet formed when water from nearby surface lakes drained into a layer of impermeable ice within the ice sheet. Once there, the water pocket refroze and fractured the overlying ice, forcing peaks to rise on either side.
Something similar could be happening on Europa, but instead with water forced up toward the surface from the subsurface ocean. The ridge features on Europa, while similar to the Greenland ridges, are much larger and with taller peaks, perhaps due in part to lower gravity on Europa.

A double ridge cutting across the surface of Europa is seen in this mosaic of two images taken by NASA’s Galileo during the spacecraft’s close flyby on Feb. 20, 1997. Analysis of a similar feature in Greenland suggests shallow liquid water may be ubiquitous across the Jovian moon’s icy shell. Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU
Surface of Jupiter's Moon Europa Churned by Small Impacts – NASA's Europa Clipper
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

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Greenland Ice, Jupiter Moon Share Similar Feature – NASA's Europa Clipper
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| April 25, 2022

Greenland Ice, Jupiter Moon Share Similar Feature

The surface geology of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is on display in this view made from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

Parallel ice ridges, a common feature on Jupiter’s moon Europa, are found on Greenland’s ice sheet – and could bode well for Europa’s potential habitability.
Parallel ice ridges in Greenland bear a striking resemblance to ridges on Jupiter’s ice-encased moon Europa, suggesting the moon’s icy shell could be riddled with pockets of water.
This similarity could greatly improve the odds of NASA’s Europa Clipper mission detecting potentially habitable environments on the Jovian moon. The spacecraft’s ice-penetrating radar instrument REASON (short for Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface) will be ideal for conducting such a search.
“If there are pockets of water under the ridges, we have the right instruments to see them,” said Dustin Schroeder, a Stanford University associate professor and coauthor of a new study comparing Greenland’s “double ridges” with those of Europa.
Scientists say evidence gathered so far shows that Europa harbors a deep liquid ocean, hidden beneath an ice shell that could be 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick. Because the ice is so substantial, a big question about the moon is whether anything from the deep ocean makes contact with the surface – or if contact goes the other way, with surface material filtering down to the ocean water.
“It’s exciting, what it would mean if you have plenty of water within the ice shell,” said coauthor Gregor Steinbrügge, a former Stanford researcher who is now a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It would mean the ice shell on Europa is extremely dynamic. It could facilitate exchange processes between the surface and the subsurface ocean. It could go in both directions.”
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This instrument mode provides spectra with a resolution of 200 x 200 miles (320 x 320 kilometers) on the surface of Europa, which has a diameter of 1,944 miles, allowing astronomers to determine where specific chemicals are located.
Carbon dioxide isn’t stable on Europa’s surface. Therefore, the scientists say it’s likely that it was supplied on a geologically recent timescale – a conclusion bolstered by its concentration in a region of young terrain.
“These observations only took a few minutes of the observatory’s time,” said Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, a Webb interdisciplinary scientist leading Webb’s Cycle 1 Guaranteed Time Observations of the solar system. “Even with this short period of time, we were able to do really big science. This work gives a first hint of all the amazing solar system science we’ll be able to do with Webb.”

NIRCam (the Near Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured this picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Webb identified carbon dioxide on the icy surface of Europa that likely originated in the moon’s subsurface ocean.
Science Credit: Geronimo Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), Samantha Trumbo (Cornell Univ.), NASA, ESA, CSA. Image Processing Credit: Geronimo Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Download the full-resolution, uncompressed version and supporting visuals from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Searching for a Plume
Villanueva’s team also looked for evidence of a plume of water vapor erupting from Europa’s surface. Researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reported tentative detections of plumes in 2013, 2016, and 2017. However, finding definitive proof has been difficult.
The new Webb data shows no evidence of plume activity, which allowed Villanueva’s team to set a strict upper limit on the rate of material potentially being ejected. The team stressed, however, that their non-detection does not rule out a plume.
“There is always a possibility that these plumes are variable and that you can only see them at certain times.
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This mosaic of a region in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter's moon, Europa, displays many of the features which are typical on the satellite's icy surface.

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Europa Clipper's Dust Analyzer

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Fractured Land

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High Gain Antenna Testing

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Star Tracker Optical Head

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Researchers at Langley prepare to move the high gain antenna for  into the Experimental Test Range at the NASA Langley Research Center. 

High Gain Antenna Testing

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Europa Clipper Propulsion Module

Europa Clipper project scientist Robert Pappalardo presents the Monolith Award to Karla Clark.

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Easy Does It: NASA's Europa Clipper is Lowered into Place

Engineers test a prototype of one of Europa Clipper’s radar antennas in 2018 on a hilltop at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

Europa Clipper REASON Radar Antenna Test JPL

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Old Data Reveal New Evidence of Europa Plumes – NASA's Europa Clipper
New lab experiments re-create the environment of Europa and find that the icy moon shines, even on its nightside. The effect is more than just a cool visual.

Europa Glows: Radiation Does a Bright Number on Jupiter's Moon

The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa features a widely varied landscape, including ridges, bands, small rounded domes and disrupted spaces that geologists call "chaos terrain." Three newly reprocessed images, taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s, reveal details in diverse surface features on Europa.

Newly Reprocessed Images of Europa Show 'Chaos Terrain' in Crisp Detail

Scientists discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Europa is actually sodium chloride, a compound known on Earth as table salt, which is also the principal component of sea salt.

Table Salt Compound Spotted on Europa

A full-scale prototype antenna, which at 10 feet tall is the same height as a standard basketball hoop, is in the Experimental Test Range (ETR) at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Europa Clipper High Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing at Langley

New comprehensive mapping of the radiation pummeling Jupiter’s icy moon Europa reveals where scientists should look -- and how deep they’ll have to go -- when searching for signs of habitability and biosignatures.

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