Observe the eruption of water from the surface of Jupiter's satellite "Europa", step forward to discovering extraterrestrial life forms

It is called a father of astronomyGalileo GalileiIs also a person who discovered Io Europa Ganymede Callisto, a satellite of Jupiter. Among these, in the eyropa of "ice satellite" covered with ice, the water spouting toward the universe was observed. As a result, under the outer shell covered by ice of Europa is made of liquid water "OceanThere is a strong possibility that existence exists, and it is thought that extraterrestrials exist in this ocean.

First water plume seen firing from Jupiter moon Europa - space - 12 December 2013 - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24743-first-water-plume-seen-firing-from-jupiter-moon-europa.html

Hubble discovers water vapour venting from Jupiter's moon Europa | Press Releases | ESA / Hubble
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1322/

Hubble Sees Evidence of Water Vapor at Jupiter Moon - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-363

I observed the state that a large amount of liquid water was ejected from Europa,NASAHubble Space Telescope. Because there is a large amount of water spouting, the possibility that liquid water is present under the outer shell of the ice has increased.

Exploration of Jupiter and its satellites has been done so far. Especially famous are space probesGalileoIn 1995 to 2003, Jupiter and its satellites were explored and we found disordered uplift, fault, crack etc. on the surface of Europa. From these information, it is inferred that the outer shell of Europa is relatively thin, and when the surface opens, it may be covered with ice by spraying water from underground. However, the moment water spouted during the exploration period of Galileo could not be observed and the presence of water remained a mystery.

This time, the Hubble Space Telescope caught a big cloud of water vapor rising on the Antarctic side of Europa. It was found that the pillar of water stood up to the height of about 200 km from the surface of the earth, and the amount of water spouted was 3000 kg per second.

"This is a big discovery" is a non-profit organization aimed at discovering extraterrestrial life forms in Mountain View, CaliforniaSETI AssociationMr. Cynthia Phillips. "If water was spurting, there would be liquid water there, so it should be very close to the ground surface."


"I could not observe the water column with the exploration of Galileo, because the spout of the water column is intermittent"South West InstituteMr. Lawrence Ross. Small satellites are crushed and stretched by the attraction of Jupiter, but Europa is under the influence of Jupiter in the same way, so that only when the europa farthest away from Jupiter the rupture opens and water spouts Mr. Ross' speculation that Galileo had missed its timing as it got up.

Another reason why Galileo could not observe the water column was because he was observing using visible light, Ross said. If the water column observed by Europa did not wind up dust or ice at the time of ejecting, if only water vapor was ejected, it is very difficult to capture it only with visible light. In that respect, the Hubble Space Telescope suggests that the water column could be discovered, as it is also possible to shoot light (such as ultraviolet rays) in areas that can not be seen with the naked eye.

In the liquid layer under the outer shell of Europa, there is a high possibility that an organism exists, so we explored this and "to investigate whether extraterrestrial life exists" is a romance of space exploration It is not too much anymore. In fact, preparations are progressing steadily for Jupiter's exploration in the spacecraft "JUICE" of the European Space Agency and NASA's spacecraft "Juno", which can observe the water column of Europa nearby I do not. Furthermore, if these probes could actually take a part of the water column, without having to go through the troublesome work of getting down on the Eupropa's surface and digging the ground with a drill, the sample of the liquid layer under the outline It will be obtained, it may be that "encounter with unknown" happens for the first time here.