In recent years, space exploration has seen significant advances, and recently, NASA's Juno mission provided exciting new information about Jupiter's moon Europa. According to the latest data, this icy moon could hold the key to sustaining human life outside of Earth, thanks to its impressive oxygen production.
Europa, one of Jupiter's four large Galilean moons, produces about 1.000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours. This amount is enough to support the life of a million people a day, opening new horizons in the search for habitable conditions in the solar system.
The Juno mission, which flew just 220 miles (about 354 kilometers) from Europa in September 2022, collected vital data with its Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument, focusing on studying hydrogen emissions from the moon's surface .
The JADE instrument found that Europa produces about 12 kilograms of oxygen per second, the equivalent of 26 pounds. This production rate is essential for assessing the potential of Europa's subsurface ocean to act as a source of metabolic energy for living organisms. Previous studies have varied in their estimates, reporting oxygen production rates from a few kilograms to over 1.000 kilograms per second, which shows the importance of continued research in this direction.
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The generation of oxygen on Europa is a fascinating process, explained by Princeton University JADE scientist Jamey Szalay. According to Szalay, the interaction of ionized particles with Europa's frozen surface leads to the breakdown of the water-ice molecule, resulting in hydrogen and oxygen. This process is comparable to an "ice ball slowly losing its water", being continuously eroded by streams of charged particles.
Europa has attracted the attention of researchers not only for its oxygen production, but also for the possibility of a salty ocean beneath its icy surface. Evidence suggests that this subsurface ocean could be a potential habitat for life, which is why NASA has planned more flybys of the moon in the coming months.
In addition to Europa, Ganymede, another moon of Jupiter, is also believed to harbor a subterranean ocean of salt water, adding to the scientific interest in this lunar system. The next major goal of the Juno mission is to explore the volcanic moon Io, with a flyby scheduled for April 9 that will provide new data on the composition and characteristics of this fascinating celestial body.
These discoveries not only expand our understanding of the solar system, but also give us hope that one day humanity may find new places to explore, and possibly live, beyond Earth's borders. The Juno mission continues to fascinate us with information valuable about Jupiter and its moons, highlighting the crucial role of space exploration in discovering our potential future cosmic homes.
