Geysers in Europe - the exception rather than the rule

On Europe, Jupiter, does not speak and does not write just lazy. And really - Europe has a large, covered with water ice, under which scientists believe can be a huge ocean of liquid water. A liquid water - is one of the essential attributes for the emergence of life (at least in the form in which we know it).

Evidence of liquid water beneath the ice were received last year, when NASA is using the Hubble Space Telescope зафиксировало the emergence of huge geysers (height up to 200 km), emitting a lot of liquid water in space.

immediately stepped supporters expedition to Europe, appeared projects robotic station , which could penetrate through the ice crust in the ocean under the ice.



already registered with clouds of water vapor near the South Pole in Europe i>

Since then, scientists старались rediscover geysers on Europe, directing the Hubble satellite. Hubble got pictures of Europe in January, February, November and December 2014. And not a single shot geysers no longer exhibit. Research teams not only NASA, but also other organizations have not been able to find any more evidence of the release of liquid water on Europa. Images from Galileo, who was studying Jupiter and its satellites in 1995-2003, also gave no information on the existence of geysers - the photographs they simply do not.

But on the other satellites, for example, Enceladus (moon of Saturn) emissions of liquid water occur with surprising regularity. This satellite also has an ocean of liquid water (in any case, all of this evidence). Scientists believe that if emissions of liquid water on Europa would occur on a regular basis, they would have already discovered. Modern technology allows you to do this easily - as mentioned above, the geysers on Enceladus are recorded regularly.

Moreover, scientists have been unable to detect the presence of water in the space next to Europe - and in the case of Enceladus water is detected without any problems. A UVIS instrument of another station, Cassini, suggests that traces of water around Europe, previously discovered - a result of volcanic activity on Io, another satellite of Jupiter. It may well be that the atmosphere in Europe is 100 times more tenuous than previously thought.



The geysers on Enceladus i>

Nevertheless, all the above does not imply that liquid water geysers for Europe not. Perhaps emissions simply less ambitious than Enceladus. In this case, their registration current equipment becomes very difficult, if not impossible, task.

But it is clear that the geysers on Europe - this is the exception rather than the rule. Image analysis of Europe obtained by Hubble in 1999 and 2012 confirm this. No geysers in these images no.

Now scientists have declared "open season" for geysers to Europe, which will continue until April 2015. It is likely that evidence of liquid water ejection Europe will be detected again (or even more). So we can only wait.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/243839/