Jupiter’s icy moon Europa produces plenty of oxygen every day, according to new findings based on data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The moon has long been of interest to astrobiologists because of the possibility that life could exist in its subsurface ocean.
The research, published this week in Nature Astronomy, focused on data from Juno’s Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment, or JADE. The scientists estimated oxygen production from the moon based on the amount of hydrogen outgassing from its surface. Their conclusion? Europa generates about 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours, enough for a million (breathing) humans.
“Europa is like an ice ball slowly losing its water in a flowing stream. Except, in this case, the stream is a fluid of ionized particles swept around Jupiter by its extraordinary magnetic field,” said Jamey Szalay, a member of the JADE science team and a research scientist at Princeton University, in a Jet Propulsion Laboratory release. “When these ionized particles impact Europa, they break up the water-ice molecule by molecule on the surface to produce hydrogen and oxygen.”
Juno launched in 2011 to explore Jupiter and its moons; over the last couple of years, the spacecraft has been taking stupendous images and data of the Jovian system, especially of Europa and the volcanic moon Io. Europa is a promising venue for astrobiology—scientists harbor hope that some kind of life ekes out existence beneath the frozen moon’s icy shell.
Europa is 1,940 miles (3,100 kilometers) across, making it the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 known moons. Because Europa is thought to harbor a subsurface ocean, scientists have wondered if the bombardment of oxygen on the moon’s surface could provide the ocean with oxygen.
While 1,000 tons of oxygen per day is a lot, it’s actually less than some previous estimates, which suggested it could be making over a ton per second. (The new paper’s figure corresponds to about 26 pounds of oxygen per second).
Juno will continue making flybys (and collecting data) on Jupiter’s moons, but for now it’s moving on from Europa. Next up is Io, which June will pass by on April 9.
But Europa is still due for more attention: NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2030, with the aim of answering once and for all if Europa has the right chemical cocktail for life. Take that alongside ESA’s JUICE mission, which will interrogate the gas giant and three of its icy moons, and it’s safe to say there’s plenty to look forward to from the Jovian system.