UV observations from Hubble show the size of water vapor plumes coming from Europa's south pole (Artist's impression. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Kornmesser) It's been known since 2005 that Saturn's 300-mile-wide moon Enceladus has geysers spewing ice and dust out into orbit from deep troughs that rake across its south pole. Now, thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope (after 23 years still going strong) we know of "another" moon with similar jets: Europa, the ever-enigmatic ice-shelled moon of Jupiter. This makes two places in our Solar System where subsurface oceans could be getting sprayed directly into space -- and within easy reach of any passing spacecraft. (Psst, NASA hint hint.) The findings were announced today during the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. (...)Read the rest of Hubble Discovers Water Plumes Erupting from Europa (667 words)
(c) Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. Permalink One comment Post tags: AGU13, Enceladus, esa, Europa, geysers, Hubble, ice, jets, NASA, ocean, Solar System, SwRI, water Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Monday 17 December 2012
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