A new study finds that the core of Jupiter’s moon Europa may have formed billions of years after the rest of the moon formed, if it actually formed at all.
Europa, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter, is covered with an ice crust. However, researchers believe that beneath its frozen crust, Europa has an ocean of salt water churning over its rocky mantle. It may contain “more liquid water than Earth,” study lead author Kevin Trinh, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe, told Space.com.
Previous research suggests that Europe may be habitable – for example, seafloor volcanoes and Hydrothermal vents They may help provide life-sustaining heat and biologically beneficial molecules to their surroundings. In order to find out if such life-supporting activity might be taking place in Europe, scientists need to understand the nature of it Jupiter The inner moon and how it might evolve over time.
“While Europa is known as an ocean world that can be inhabited, more than 90% of Europa’s mass comes from rocks and minerals,” Trinh said.
Related: The alien life hunters look to the icy ocean moons Europa and Enceladus
After NASA Galileo spacecraft Arriving in the Jovian system in 1995, his analysis of Europa’s gravitational field suggested that, like Earth, Europa’s interior is divided into a metallic core and a rocky mantle. Later research has often assumed that the interior of Europa split into these layers with the formation of the Jovian moon or soon after.
Now, “to our surprise, we found that Europa probably spent most of its life without a fully formed metallic core — that is, if such a core ever existed,” Trinh said.
a Study 2021 That re-examined Galileo’s data suggests that Europa may be less massive near its center than previously thought. This would raise the question of whether it possessed a fully formed nucleus.
One reason Europa may not have a fully formed core is that it likely formed at cooler temperatures than Earth, due to the icy moon’s greater distance from the sun. This means that, when Europa’s building blocks came together, they might not have melted and separated into a metallic core and rocky mantle.
Trinh and his colleagues developed computer models of how temperatures might have changed within Europa over the past 4.5 billion years, assuming relatively low initial temperatures of minus 99 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 73 degrees Celsius) to minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius).
Scientists have found that around 500,000 years after Europa’s birth, its ocean and icy shell may have formed as a result of chemical reactions that led water to gradually rise from Europa’s mantle. Europa’s metallic core, if it exists, likely began to form at least a billion years after the birth of the Moon; Heat from radioactive elements and tidal fluctuations from Jupiter’s gravity may have slowly melted the core over Europa’s age.
The researchers note that Europe may still be gradually separating into multiple layers today. The formation of a metallic core will help make Europa more habitable, Train said, “because the formation of a metallic core can generate a heat pulse for the rocky mantle.”
NASA planned Europa Clipper Train noted that the mission may help survey the gravity of the Jovian moon “to improve our understanding of how mass is distributed within Europa, which relates to the presence of Europa’s metallic core.”
the New study It was published online today (June 16) in the journal Science Advances.
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