REAL LIFE NEWS: EUROPA’S WATER SPOUTS EJECTED INTO SPACE
by Hazed
The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed Jupiter’s moon Europa, and the images show plumes of water being ejected from the moon’s surface into space.
The series of ten images were taken over 15 months as the moon passed in front of Jupiter. The telescope used reflected light from the gas giant to take the spectrographic images of Europa. Three of the pictures show plumes of fluid 125 miles high being blasted into space from the moon’s south pole.
These plumes are very significant. Europa has a vast ocean covered with a thick layer of ice, and it’s long been speculated that conditions in the ocean might be conducive to life. But the thickness of the ice presents problems in any mission getting through to the liquid to take samples.
But if the water is being jetted into space then collecting a sample to examine becomes a whole lot easier. NASA is working on a mission to Europa and it’s possible this new discovery will be factored into the planning.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/26/hubble_spots_water_above_europa_surface/
Speaking of Europa, here’s a fantastic picture of the moon: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160927.html
