Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Villanueva, G L
• Hammel, H B
• Milam, S N
• Faggi, S
• Kofman, V
• Roth, L
• Hand, K P
• Paganini, L
• Stansberry, J
• Spencer, J
• Protopapa, S
• Strazzulla, G
• Cruz-Mermy, G
• Glein, C R
• Cartwright, R
• Liuzzi, G

Titel

Endogenous CO2 ice mixture on the surface of Europa and no detection of plume activity

Ist Teil von

• Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science), 2023-09, Vol.381 (6664), p.1305-1308

Ort / Verlag

Washington: The American Association for the Advancement of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Editor’s summaryEuropa, an icy moon of Jupiter, has a subsurface ocean beneath a crust of water ice. Solid carbon dioxide (CO2) has previously been observed on its surface, but the source was unknown. Two teams analyzed infrared spectroscopy of Europa from the James Webb Space Telescope to investigate the CO2 source. Trumbo and Brown found that the CO2 is concentrated in a region with geology that indicates transport of material to the surface from within the moon, and they discuss the implications for the composition of Europa’s internal ocean. Villanueva et al. also identified an internal origin of the CO2 and measured its 12C/13C isotope ratio. They searched for plumes of volatile material breaching the surface but found a lower activity than earlier observations. Together, these studies demonstrate that there is a source of carbon within Europa, probably in its ocean. —Keith T. Smith