"NASA's Juno Mission Reveals Oxygen Levels on Europa, Impact on Habitability"

NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter has measured the rate of oxygen production at the Jovian moon Europa to be around 26 pounds every second, substantially less than previous estimates. The findings, published in Nature Astronomy, were derived from data collected by the spacecraft's Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument. Europa's icy surface is bombarded by charged particles from Jupiter, which split water molecules to generate oxygen, potentially providing a source of metabolic energy for the moon's subsurface ocean. The mission's next target is the volcano-festooned moon Io, with upcoming flybys to gather more data.