vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Europa's Interior May Be Hot Enough to Fuel Seafloor Volcanoes – NASA's Europa Clipper
Europa's Interior May Be Hot Enough to Fuel Seafloor Volcanoes – NASA's Europa Clipper

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| May 25, 2021

Europa's Interior May Be Hot Enough to Fuel Seafloor Volcanoes

This illustration, updated as of December 2020, depicts NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. The mission, targeting a 2024 launch, will investigate whether Jupiter’s moon Europa and its internal ocean have conditions suitable for life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Jupiter’s moon Europa has an icy crust covering a vast, global ocean. The rocky layer underneath may be hot enough to melt, leading to undersea volcanoes.
New research and computer modeling show that volcanic activity may have occurred on the seafloor of Jupiter’s moon Europa in the recent past – and may still be happening. NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission, targeting a 2024 launch, will swoop close to the icy moon and collect measurements that may shed light on the recent findings.
Scientists have strong evidence that Europa harbors an enormous ocean between its icy crust and rocky interior. The new work shows how the moon may have enough internal heat to partially melt this rocky layer, a process that could feed volcanoes on the ocean floor. The recent 3D modeling of how this internal heat is produced and transferred is the most detailed and thorough examination yet of the effect this interior heating has on the moon.
The key to Europa’s rocky mantle being hot enough to melt lies with the massive gravitational pull Jupiter has on its moons. As Europa revolves around the gas giant, the icy moon’s interior flexes. The flexing forces energy into the moon’s interior, which then seeps out as heat (think of how repeatedly bending a paperclip generates heat). The more the moon’s interior flexes, the more heat is generated.
The research, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, models in detail how Europa’s rocky part may flex and heat under the pull of Jupiter’s gravity.
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Newly Reprocessed Images of Europa Show 'Chaos Terrain' in Crisp Detail
Newly Reprocessed Images of Europa Show 'Chaos Terrain' in Crisp Detail

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 . Newly Reprocessed Images of Europa Show 'Chaos Terrain' in Crisp Detail
 
 May 1, 2020
 This newly reprocessed image of Jupiter's moon Europa, taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on Sept. 26, 1998, reveals details of diverse surface features. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute 
 Full Image Details
 The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa features a widely varied landscape, including ridges, bands, small rounded domes and disrupted spaces that geologists called chaos terrain. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute 
 Full Image Details
 This image of Europa shows a region of blocky chaos terrain, where the surface has broken apart into many smaller chaos blocks that are surrounded by featureless matrix material. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute 
 Full Image Details
 
 Work is ongoing to refine images NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured of Europa as scientists prepare for exploration of Jupiter's icy 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.Although the data captured by Galileo is more than two decades old, scientists are using modern image processing techniques to create new views of the moon's surface in preparation for the arrival of the Europa Clipper spacecraft. The orbiter of Jupiter will conduct dozens of flybys of Europa to learn more about the ocean beneath the moon's thick icy crust and how it interacts with the surface. The mission, set to launch in the next several years, will be the first return to Europa since Galileo."We've only seen a very small part of Europa's surface at this resolution.
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All Systems Go for NASA's Mission to Jupiter Moon Europa – NASA's Europa Clipper
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Greenland Ice, Jupiter Moon Share Similar Feature

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Europa: A World of Ice, With Potential for Life

Jupiter’s moon Europa has an icy crust covering a vast, global ocean. The rocky layer underneath may be hot enough to melt, leading to undersea volcanoes.

Europa's Interior May Be Hot Enough to Fuel Seafloor Volcanoes

Scientists have theorized on the origin of the water plumes possibly erupting from Jupiter's moon Europa. Recent research adds a new potential source to the mix.

Potential Plumes on Europa Could Come From Water in the Crust

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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

An icy ocean world in our solar system that could tell us more about the potential for life on other worlds is coming into focus with confirmation of the Europa Clipper mission's next phase. 

Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moon Confirmed
Jupiter - NASA Science
Crews will prepare it for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Florida spaceport, targeting liftoff on Tuesday, June 25. Europa Clipper will help determine if life-sustaining conditions exist below the surface of Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa.NASA/Isaac WatsonLatest Jupiter NewsMore Stories Article5 min readNASA’s Juno Provides High-Definition Views of Europa’s Icy ShellImage Article2 min readNASA’s Juno Mission Spots Jupiter’s Tiny Moon AmaltheaImage Article1 min readJupiter’s Great Red SpotImage Article1 min readA Moonlit TrioJupiter14 ImagesGo To GalleryGo To GalleryLearn MoreFor Kids: All About JupiterFacts about Jupiter for kids.Jupiter Resource PackageActivities that can be done at home, as well as videos, animations, posters, and online interactives.NASA Photojournal: JupiterNASA database of images and videos of scientific interest.Keep ExploringMore TopicsSaturnUranusNeptunePlutoReturn to topThe National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery.About NASA's MissionJoin UsHomeNews & EventsMultimediaNASA+MissionsHumans in SpaceEarth & ClimateThe Solar SystemThe UniverseScienceAeronauticsTechnologyLearning ResourcesAbout NASANASA en EspañolFollow NASAMore NASA Social AccountsNASA NewslettersSitemapFor MediaPrivacy PolicyFOIANo FEAR ActOffice of the IGBudget & Annual ReportsAgency Financial ReportsContact NASAAccessibilityPage Last Updated:2 weeks agoPage Editor:SMD Content EditorsResponsible NASA Official for Science:Dana Bolles
Radiation Maps of Europa: Key to Future Missions – NASA's Europa Clipper
“This is the first prediction of radiation levels at each point on Europa’s surface and is important information for future Europa missions,” said Chris Paranicas, a co-author from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Now scientists know where to find regions least altered by radiation, which could be crucial information for the JPL-led Europa Clipper, NASA’s mission to orbit Jupiter and monitor Europa with about 45 close flybys. The spacecraft may launch as early as 2022 and will carry cameras, spectrometers, plasma and radar instruments to investigate the composition of the moon’s surface, its ocean, and material that has been ejected from the surface.
In his new paper, Nordheim didn’t stop with a two-dimensional map. He went deeper, gauging how far below the surface the radiation penetrates, and building 3D models of the most intense radiation on Europa. The results tell us how deep scientists need to dig or drill, during a potential future Europa lander mission, to find any biosignatures that might be preserved.
The answer varies, from 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) in the highest-radiation zones – down to less than 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) deep in regions of Europa at middle- and high-latitudes, toward the moon’s poles.
To reach that conclusion, Nordheim tested the effect of radiation on amino acids, basic building blocks for proteins, to figure out how Europa’s radiation would affect potential biosignatures. Amino acids are among the simplest molecules that qualify as a potential biosignature, the paper notes.
“The radiation that bombards Europa’s surface leaves a fingerprint,” said Kevin Hand, co-author of the new research and project scientist for the potential Europa Lander mission. “If we know what that fingerprint looks like, we can better understand the nature of any organics and possible biosignatures that might be detected with future missions, be they spacecraft that fly by or land on Europa.
Europa Clipper’s mission team is examining possible orbit paths, and proposed routes pass over many regions of Europa that experience lower levels of radiation, Hand said.
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 Other Worlds: Europa 

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On Earth, where there is liquid water, there is life. Jupiter’s moon Europa has a liquid water ocean underneath its icy crust. Go behind the scenes with scientists as they […]

 
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Europa's Interior May Be Hot Enough to Fuel Seafloor Volcanoes – NASA's Europa Clipper
As Europa revolves around the gas giant, the icy moon’s interior flexes. The flexing forces energy into the moon’s interior, which then seeps out as heat (think of how repeatedly bending a paperclip generates heat). The more the moon’s interior flexes, the more heat is generated.
The research, published recently in Geophysical Research Letters, models in detail how Europa’s rocky part may flex and heat under the pull of Jupiter’s gravity. It shows where heat dissipates and how it melts that rocky mantle, increasing the likelihood of volcanoes on the seafloor.

Scientists’ findings suggest that the interior of Jupiter’s moon Europa may consist of an iron core, surrounded by a rocky mantle in direct contact with an ocean under the icy crust. New research models how internal heat may fuel volcanoes on the seafloor. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Michael Carroll

Volcanic activity on Europa has been a topic of speculation for decades. By comparison, Jupiter’s moon Io is obviously volcanic. Hundreds of volcanoes erupt lava fountains and eject volcanic gas and dust up to 250 miles (400 kilometers) high, and that activity is due to the same kind of internal heating caused by Jupiter’s pull. But Europa is farther away from its host planet, so scientists have wondered if the effect would be similar – under the icy surface.
The authors, led by Marie Běhounková of Charles University in Czech Republic, further predicted that volcanic activity is most likely to occur near the poles of Europa – the latitudes where the most heat is generated. They also looked at how volcanic activity may have evolved over time. Long-lived energy sources give more time for potential life to have developed.
Underwater volcanoes, if present, could power hydrothermal systems like those that fuel life at the bottom of Earth’s oceans. On Earth, when seawater comes into contact with hot magma, the interaction results in chemical energy. And it is chemical energy from these hydrothermal systems, rather than sunlight, that helps support life deep in our own oceans.
Volcanic activity on Europa’s seafloor would be one way to support a potential habitable environment in Europa’s ocean.
Europa Glows: Radiation Does a Bright Number on Jupiter's Moon – NASA's Europa Clipper
Una voz entre las estrellas: Poema de la poetisa laureada estadounidense Ada Limón viajará a Europa en una nave espacial de la NASA

How will Europa Clipper see through Europa's thick ice shell to study the moon's ocean?

Mission Dispatch: Using Radar to Study Earth and Europa

Parallel ice ridges, a common feature on Jupiter’s moon Europa, are also found on Greenland’s ice sheet.

Greenland Ice, Jupiter Moon Share Similar Feature

Jupiter’s moon Europa and its global ocean may currently have conditions suitable for life. Scientists are studying processes on the icy surface as they prepare to explore.

Surface of Jupiter's Moon Europa Churned by Small Impacts

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa may be the most promising place in the solar system to find present-day environments suitable for life beyond Earth. 

Europa: A World of Ice, With Potential for Life

Jupiter’s moon Europa has an icy crust covering a vast, global ocean. The rocky layer underneath may be hot enough to melt, leading to undersea volcanoes.

Europa's Interior May Be Hot Enough to Fuel Seafloor Volcanoes

Scientists have theorized on the origin of the water plumes possibly erupting from Jupiter's moon Europa. Recent research adds a new potential source to the mix.

Potential Plumes on Europa Could Come From Water in the Crust

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
Other Worlds: Europa | NASA+
Other Worlds: Europa | NASA+

Other Worlds: Europa - NASA+

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Greenland Ice, Jupiter Moon Share Similar Feature – NASA's Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper Vault Plate - Inward-Facing Side

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