NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter has discovered that Jupiter's moon Europa produces around 26 pounds of oxygen every second, substantially less than previous estimates. This finding was derived by measuring hydrogen outgassing from the moon's surface using data collected by the spacecraft's Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument. Scientists believe that some of the oxygen produced could work its way into Europa's subsurface ocean as a possible source of metabolic energy, raising curiosity about the potential for life-supporting conditions to exist below the moon's surface. Juno's observations provide a tight constraint on the amount of oxygen produced in Europa's icy surface, and this discovery will be further investigated by NASA's Europa Clipper mission when it arrives at Jupiter in 2030.
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.
NASA's Juno spacecraft captured a stunning new image of Io, Jupiter's volcanically active moon, during a recent flyby. The image, processed by Björn Jónsson, reveals a bright plume and specular reflections, shedding new light on the moon's volcanic activity. Juno's mission to study Jupiter includes periodic flybys of its moons, providing opportunities for public engagement in processing raw images.
