In thecrust of europe, one of the moons of Jupiter, existsliquid water with a volume similar to that of the Great Lakes of North America, as discovered by a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin (United States). The finding has been published inNatureand it would be a “significant” step in the search for life outside of Earth, according to experts.
The water is encased within the icy crust of the satellite and, according to lead author Britney Schmidt, could represent a potential habitat for life and many more lakes could exist in the shallow crust regions of Europa. In addition, the newly discovered lake iscovered by floating ice shelves that appear to be collapsing into each other, providing a mechanism fornutrient and energy transfer between surface and waterunder the ice. This could make Europa and its ocean “habitable places,” the researchers conclude.
The scientists focused on images taken by theGalileo spacecraftof two circular areas on the surface of Europa, called “chaos”. Drawing on what we know from similar processes taking place on Earth, on ice shelves, and under glaciers on volcanoes, the researchers developed a four-step model to analyze terrain features in Europe. After the analysis, several conflicting observations were made: some seemed to indicate that the ice sheet is thick and others that it is thin.
Because the lakes are several kilometers below the surface, the only real confirmation of their presence will come after themission of a future spacecraft designed to explore this ice sheet. This mission has been classified as the second in priority, according to the latest report ‘Planetary Science Decadal Survey’, and is currently being studied by NASA.
