The agency’s mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moon Europa takes a big step forward as engineers deliver a major component of the spacecraft. The main body of NASA’s Europa Clipper […]
Europa
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Press Release
The Formation Of Abundant Features On Europa Bodes Well For The Search For Extraterrestrial Life
Europa is a prime candidate for life in our solar system, and its deep saltwater ocean has captivated scientists for decades. But it’s enclosed by an icy shell that could […]
Posted inEuropa, Icy Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Press Release
Science Goals and Mission Architecture of the Europa Lander Mission Concept
Europa is a premier target for advancing both planetary science and astrobiology, as well as for opening a new window into the burgeoning field of comparative oceanography. The potentially habitable […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Icy Worlds, Press Release
On Europa Chaos Terrains Could Be Shuttling Oxygen To An Ocean
Salt water within the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa could be transporting oxygen into an ice-covered ocean of liquid water where it could potentially help sustain alien life, according […]
Posted inEuropa, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release
Compositional Mapping of Europa Using MCMC Modelling of Near-IR VLT/SPHERE and Galileo/NIMS Observations
We present maps of surface composition of Europa’s anti-jovian hemisphere acquired using high spatial resolution IFU multi-spectral data from the SPHERE instrument on the Very Large Telescope (0.95 to 1.65μm) […]
Posted inEuropa, Press Release
Europa Clipper's Plasma Instrument For Magnetic Sounding
Included in the payload of science instruments for NASA’s Europa Clipper is the Plasma Instrument for Magnetic Sounding (PIMS). Scientists will use PIMS to study the characteristics of plasma around […]
Posted inEuropa
Europa's Surface Water-ice Crystallinity And Correlations Between Lineae And Hydrate Composition
Europa’s surface composition and evidence for cryovolcanic activity can provide insight into the properties and composition of the subsurface ocean, allowing the evaluation of its potential habitability. One promising avenue […]
Posted inEuropa
The Influence of Temperature and Photobleaching on Irradiated Sodium Chloride at Europa-like Conditions
Europa’s leading hemisphere chaos regions have a spectral feature at 450 nm that has been attributed to absorption by crystal defects in irradiated sodium chloride, known as F-centers. Some discrepancies […]
Posted inCallisto, Europa, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Jupiter
Thermal Conductivity Measurements Of Macroscopic Frozen Salt Ice Analogs Of Jovian Icy Moons In Support Of The Planned JUICE Mission
The study of thermal properties of frozen salt solutions representative of ice layers in Jovian moons is crucial to support the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) (ESA) and Europa Clipper […]
Posted inEuropa
Are Water Plumes Spraying From Europa?
In 2005, images of a brilliant watery plume erupting from the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus captivated the world. The giant column of vapor, ice particles, and organic molecules spraying […]