Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, generates enough oxygen per day for a million humans

2024-03-06 19:25:00
The data provided by the Juno mission sheds light on the generation of oxygen, crucial for potential life under its icy crust (Illustrative image Infobae)

Jupiter’s moon Europa, a celestial body that has fascinated the scientific community for potentially harboring an underground ocean capable of supporting life, is the focus of recent research that has revealed surprising data about its ability to generate oxygen. According to a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy, and using data collected by NASA’s Juno mission, it has been determined that it produces about a thousand tons of the gas every 24 hours.

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Although the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain habitable environments such as those on Earth, it revolutionizes expectations about the conditions for life outside our planet.

The New York Times noted that researchers, led by Jamey Szalay of Princeton University, found that the icy surface of this moon records an oxygen production of approximately 13 to 40 kilograms per second, which is significantly less than Previous estimates suggested more than 907 kilograms per second.

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Szalay stressed that although the results are “on the lower end of what we expected,” this does not completely exclude Europe as a potentially habitable place.

CBS News explained that the origin of this oxygen is due to the interaction between charged particles from space and the icy crust of this moon, a process that breaks down frozen water into hydrogen and oxygen molecules. “The ice sheet is like Europa’s lung,” Szalay said, noting how Europa’s surface protects the subsurface ocean from harmful radiation, while allowing for this chemical “breathing.”

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However, despite the existence of oxygen, Europa presents extremely hostile conditions for humans, in part due to the intense radiation on the surface of the moon, where, according to estimates, “an astronaut in a space suit could not survive more than one day,” says Szalay. This finding highlights the complexity of human exploration in extraterrestrial environments.

Oxygen production in Europa could impact its underground ocean (Kevin M. Gill/NASA)

The Juno mission, which launched in 2011 and has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, has been key in obtaining these revealing data. The space probe was able to directly measure the composition of charged particles coming from Europa’s atmosphere during a flyby in 2022.

“Juno brought a new ability to directly measure the composition of charged particles emitted from Europa’s atmosphere,” Szalay said. This discovery opens new questions about the dynamics between the icy surface of this moon and its powerfully habitable underground ocean.

The research team also emphasized that, although they have been able to estimate the amount of oxygen produced, it remains to be determined how much of this oxygen actually penetrates the ice and reaches the ocean below, “an important puzzle in learning about the moon as a system,” according to Carl Schmidt, a planetary scientist at Boston University. This enigma still persists and highlights the need for future space missions specifically aimed at studying the celestial body in greater detail.

In light of these discoveries, NASA plans to launch the Europa Clipper mission in October 2024 to conduct a detailed reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon could support conditions suitable for life.

The frozen surface of Europe functions as a lung for the satellite (Illustrative image Infobae)

Meanwhile, scientists like Szalay eagerly hope to unravel more of Europa’s secrets from the data collected by Juno, anticipating that “this is just the tip of the iceberg. For many years, we will be digging through just this flyover to find all the treasures.”

(With information from CBS News and The New York Times)

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