NASA announces that it again observed the eruption of "water" about 200 km in height on Jupiter's satellite Europa.

A satellite orbiting JupiterEuropaThe surface is covered with ice covering 3 km in thickness and is also called "Moon of Ice". In EuropaObservation of water spouting in 2013Although it is being done, this time, the eruption of water reaching the height of 200 km from the surface of the earth was newly observed by NASA.

NASA's Hubble Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting on Europa | NASA
http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-hubble-spots-possible-water-plumes-erupting-on-jupiters-moon-europa

HubbleSite - NewsCenter - NASA's Hubble Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting on Jupiter's Moon Europa (09/26/2016) - Introduction
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/33

According to NASA 's announcement, a team of astronomers who were observing Europa using the Hubble Space Telescope succeeded in observing the eruption of moisture, which is considered to be water vapor, from the surface of Europa. The white bulge seen in the lower left below is the eruption of water vapor, which is seen to be spouting over 200 km toward the universe from the earth's surface.


The team led by William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Mr. Lorentz Ross of the Southwest Institute are observing the same water column ejections in different ways, and the water column calculated by both teams Since the estimated values ​​such as height and scale are similar, there is a high possibility that it is the eruption of moisture. Mr. Jeff Yodder of NASA said, "The ocean, which seems to be lurking under the Europa's underground, is the place most likely to exist life in the solar system," says 62 miles (100 meters) on Europa's surface Even without digging a thick ice layer, the possibility of obtaining sampling from the spout of the water column has emerged.


It seems that we can not conclude whether the water jet is water vapor or water ice (sherbet), but the Hubble telescope analyzes this jet as "H2O". About 3 billion cubic kilometers of oceans are considered to be lurking in Europa, equivalent to twice the size of the Earth's ocean, and if NASA could encounter the eruption in the Europa approach mission that may be done in 2020, The existence of life forms may become clear. If life exists, the water column blowing out of the ocean may be an elevator that carries living things in the deep sea.

The research report of Mr. Sparks will be announced on 29th September 2016 at the Astro Physical Journal. A movie that summarizes the discovery of this time has been released, and you can see the CG image of the water column from the following.

Hubble Directly Images Possible Plumes on Europa - YouTube