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The icy surface of Jupiter 's moon Europa appears to be constantly changing, new data from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed. This phenomena, the team explained, is heightened in so-called ...

To make these lander missions happen, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory team has been working on a robot that could handle the search for life and already tested it on the Matanuska Glacier in Alaska. ...

The ice on the surface of Jupiter's massive moon Europa is constantly changing, hinting at the presence of a subsurface ocean, new James Webb telescope observations reveal.

Europa's surface ice is crystallizing at different rates in different places, which could point to a complex mix of external processes and geologic activity affecting the surface.

This illustration of Europa shows how its icy surface may shine even on its night side, because Jupiter is constantly bombarding it with radiation. NASA / JPL-Caltech 2024-03-09T00:18:06Z ...

A series of experiments support spectral data recently collected by the James Webb Space Telescope that found evidence that the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa is constantly changing. Europa ...

Europa is a cold moon, with surface temperatures ranging from minus 210 to minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit, and it's covered in ice. Ice thickness estimates vary from 6 to 15 miles.

That’s consistent with the average age of Europa’s icy surface, which is roughly 60 million years old. “We may be in a phase of lesser activity now,” he says.

On Europa, future missions should find intact, recognizable amino acids about eight inches beneath the surface, especially in the high latitudes near the north and south poles of the moon.

Europa's surface ice exhibits varying rates of crystallization, influenced by external and geologic processes. Laboratory experiments and JWST data indicate both crystalline and amorphous ice are ...