Europa’s Hidden Ocean May Not Reveal Itself in Surface Plumes
TL;DR
New computer simulations suggest Europa’s icy crust is a formidable barrier: liquid water rising through fractures would churn and rapidly cool, likely freezing into frazil ice before reaching near-surface depths. Therefore, shallow liquid pockets seen by the Europa Clipper (arriving around 2030) may reflect local ice melting rather than direct upwellings from the deep ocean, affecting how scientists interpret potential habitability signals and where to look for clues during future missions (also relevant to JUICE).
- Jupiter's moon Europa may have signs of life in its buried ocean — but can we get to them? Space
- Europa is smaller than Earth's Moon, yet the ocean locked beneath its ice contains more liquid water than every ocean on Earth combined — kept from freezing not by sunlight, but by Jupiter's gravity squeezing the moon like a slow, endless fist Space Daily
- Europa’s Hidden Ocean May Be Locked Beneath a Frozen Wall SciTechDaily
- APOD: 1998 January 02 - Europa's Disconnected Surface NASA Science (.gov)
- The search for life on Jupiter's icy moon Europa just got more complicated ScienceDaily
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