by On Monday (4 March), scientists announced that they had succeeded in measuring how much molecular oxygen – the type of oxygen we breathe on Earth – is likely to be around Jupiter’s moon Europa. While researchers have made estimates of the icy moon’s oxygen content in the past, the team says this is the first time we’ve done so. just measure it.
To sum it up, the result fell short of some pretty high estimates previously. Could this mean that Europa, which is believed to harbor one large salty ocean under its icy shell, is not as friendly as we had hoped for the emergence of life? Or, at least, with life as we know it? Well, not necessarily, but it’s certainly an interesting discussion that calls for further investigation.
Related: NASA’s Juno spacecraft hints at activity on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa
According to the study, several previous estimates of Europa’s oxygen content were inferred atomic oxygen emissions associated with the moon. Unlike molecular oxygen, which is made up of two oxygen atoms, atomic oxygen is made up of one. The latter is the kind we can’t breathe, but scientists probably thought that decoding the amount around Europa would at least limit the amount of respirable oxygen produced by the moon. .
That reasoning, along with some other remote-observation analyses, did indeed place some limits on how much material is truly associated with this Jovian satellite—but the new study found a way to narrow these predictions even further. The researchers achieved a just measuring Europa’s oxygen content thanks to NASA’s Juno probe and a bit of ice chemistry.
Basically, as the team explains in the summary of the study, Europa’s surface water ice shell may have the potential to undergo a type of water splitting process. There are certain reactions that could turn some of Europa’s frozen water molecules into molecular hydrogen (made of two hydrogen atoms) and molecular oxygen. And if such reactions really happened, the proof would be there with some oxygen and hydrogen ions that would result from them around the moon – ions, as if they were carrying electric charges. The theory was well founded, as scientists knew that Europa’s orbital path passes through one of Jupiter’s radiation belts. This belt has a series of charged particles that could impact the surface of the moon, which could cause the water splitting process.
Sure enough, in September of 2022, when Juno flew within 220 miles (354 kilometers) of Europa, it was able to identify evidence of such water-splitting activity, the team explains. The probe found hydrogen and oxygen ions that appeared to be created by “charged particle bombardment,” according to a NASA statementwhich is then “collected” by Jupiter’s magnetic field as it sweeps over the moon.
“Here, we report direct observations of accumulated H2+ and O2+ ions from Europa’s water ice surface dissociation and confirm that these species are primary atmospheric constituents,” the study reads.
For some numbers, the scientists determined that the moon’s atmosphere generates 26 pounds of molecular oxygen every second (12 kilograms per second.) Previous estimates, they say, range from a few pounds to more than 2,000 pounds in per second (about 900 kilograms per second. )
“Back when NASA’s Galileo mission flew by Europa, it opened our eyes to Europa’s complex and dynamic interaction with its environment. Juno provided a new ability to directly measure the composition of charged particles from Europa’s atmosphere, and we could wait. to look further behind this exciting water world,” lead study author Jamey Szalay of Princeton University, one of Juno’s instrument scientists, said in the statement. “But we didn’t realize that Juno’s observations would give us such tight constraints on how much oxygen is produced on Europa’s icy surface.”
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Due to the value being lower than previously estimated, the team writes in the study that this result introduces “a narrower range to support habitability in Europa’s oceans.” The concern stems in part from the fact that this method of water production may be the way Europa’s subsurface oases get their oxygen.
But, as a statement provided by NASA shows, there is another way to think about this. “An ice-covered Jovian moon generates 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours—enough to keep a million people breathing for a day,” it reads. Still, would life living on an alien moon (even life as we know it) have some exotic oxygen needs? Stay tuned for that one.
What’s next? The team says they are headed to dislodge another Jovian moon: Io.
The study was published on March 4 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
