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Scientists excited to find ocean of Europa contains carbon
The observations, by the James Webb space telescope, indicate that carbon dioxide ice on the moon’s surface originated from the salty ocean that lies beneath a 10-mile thick crust of ice. Although the findings do not answer the question of whether alien life is lurking in the cold, gloomy depths, they add weight to the view that Europa’s ocean could be the most promising place in the solar system to go looking for it.
“This is a big deal and I am very excited by it,” said Dr Christopher Glein, a geochemist at Southwest Research Institute, in Texas, US, and co-author. “We don’t know yet if life is actually present in Europa’s ocean. But this new finding adds evidence to the case that Europa’s ocean would be a good bet for hosting extant life. That environment looks tantalising from the perspective of astrobiology.”
...
Previous research has identified the presence of solid CO2 ice on Europa’s surface, but it was not clear whether this had been spewed up by the subsurface ocean or was delivered to the moon’s surface by meteorite impacts. The latest observations used near-infrared observations by the James Webb telescope to map the distribution of CO2 on Europa’s surface. This showed a hotspot of CO2 in Tara Regio, a roughly 695 sq mile (1,800 sq km) region of so-called “chaos terrain”. Here the surface is dominated by glacial cracks and icy ridges, formed as blocks of ice have been forced to the surface through geological processes.
“The discovery of carbon dioxide in salt-rich regions of Europa’s ice shell indicates that the CO2 is coming from the ocean below and not from outside sources, such as meteorites and ions bombarding Europa,” said Kevin Hand, an astrobiologist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-author.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/21/scientists-excited-to-find-ocean-of-one-of-jupiters-moons-contains-carbon
“This is a big deal and I am very excited by it,” said Dr Christopher Glein, a geochemist at Southwest Research Institute, in Texas, US, and co-author. “We don’t know yet if life is actually present in Europa’s ocean. But this new finding adds evidence to the case that Europa’s ocean would be a good bet for hosting extant life. That environment looks tantalising from the perspective of astrobiology.”
...
Previous research has identified the presence of solid CO2 ice on Europa’s surface, but it was not clear whether this had been spewed up by the subsurface ocean or was delivered to the moon’s surface by meteorite impacts. The latest observations used near-infrared observations by the James Webb telescope to map the distribution of CO2 on Europa’s surface. This showed a hotspot of CO2 in Tara Regio, a roughly 695 sq mile (1,800 sq km) region of so-called “chaos terrain”. Here the surface is dominated by glacial cracks and icy ridges, formed as blocks of ice have been forced to the surface through geological processes.
“The discovery of carbon dioxide in salt-rich regions of Europa’s ice shell indicates that the CO2 is coming from the ocean below and not from outside sources, such as meteorites and ions bombarding Europa,” said Kevin Hand, an astrobiologist at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-author.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/sep/21/scientists-excited-to-find-ocean-of-one-of-jupiters-moons-contains-carbon
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