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Europa, Jupiter’s ice-cloaked ocean moon, comprises far much less oxygen than beforehand thought, making it a poor candidate for sustaining alien life.
Researchers got here to this conclusion after analyzing knowledge compiled from NASA’s Juno mission. Calculations from a 2022 flyby of the Jovian moon revealed that Europa’s frozen surface solely produces about 26 kilos (12 kilograms) of oxygen per second, in response to a examine printed March 4 within the journal Nature Astronomy.
This quantity is much decrease than earlier laptop mannequin predictions, which estimated the floor produced 2,205 kilos (1,000 kg) of oxygen per second. That means the moon’s life-sustaining oxygen provide is “extra like a trickle, not a torrent,” in response to Scientific American.
“It is on the decrease finish of what we might anticipate,” lead examine creator Jamey Szalay, a plasma physicist at Princeton College, informed The New York Times.
Nonetheless, scientists stay optimistic that Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, which is probably finest identified for having an underground ocean, might nonetheless harbor life within the type of microbes and that the oxygen shortage is “not completely prohibitive” for habitability, Szalay added.
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Not like right here on Earth, the place the photosynthesis of crops, algae and cyanobacteria pump life-sustaining oxygen into the environment, on Europa “charged particles from house bombard the moon’s icy crust,” inflicting the frozen floor to launch hydrogen and oxygen molecules, in response to The New York Occasions.
“The ice shell is like Europa’s lung,” Szalay informed The New York Occasions. “The floor — which is similar floor that protects the ocean beneath from dangerous radiation — is, in a way, respiratory.”
Though there are presently no plans for Juno to move by Europa once more, NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission will launch later this 12 months and is scheduled to reach in Jupiter’s orbit by 2030. That mission will assist “decide if Europa has situations that might be appropriate for all times,” in response to the assertion.
