Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
International

Signs of Europa's plumes remain elusive

Darpan News Desk IANS, 21 Dec, 2014 12:12 PM
    A fresh look at data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during its 2001 flyby of Jupiter shows that its moon Europa's tenuous atmosphere is even thinner than previously thought.
     
    The thin, hot gas around the moon does not show evidence of plume activity occurring at the time of Cassini flyby en route to Saturn in 2001, the US space agency said in a statement.
     
    Members of Cassini's ultraviolet imaging spectrograph (UVIS) team analysed data collected by their instrument.
     
    Europa contributes 40 times less oxygen than previously thought to its surrounding environment, calculated the study.
     
    "Our work shows that researchers have been overestimating the density of Europa's atmosphere by quite a bit," said Don Shemansky, a Cassini UVIS team member with Space Environment Technologies in Pasadena, California and lead author.
     
    "It is certainly still possible that plume activity occurs, but that it is infrequent or the plumes are smaller than we see at Enceladus," said Amanda Hendrix, a Cassini UVIS team member with the Planetary Science Institute in Pasadena.
     
    Europa is considered one of the exciting destinations in the solar system for future exploration due to strong indications of having an ocean beneath its icy crust.
     
    Most of the hot, excited gas or plasma around Europa originates not from the moon itself but from volcanoes on the nearby moon Io.
     
    The moon's tenuous atmosphere, which was already thought to be millions of times thinner than Earth's atmosphere, is actually about 100 times less dense than those previous estimates.
     
    "We found no evidence for water near Europa, even though we have readily detected it as it erupts in the plumes of Enceladus," explained Larry Esposito from University of Colorado.
     
    "Studies like this make the most of the data we have and help guide the kinds of of science investigations NASA should pursue in the future," concluded Curt Niebur, Outer Planets programme scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington.
     
    The study appeared in the journal Astrophysical Journal.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Miss South Africa Rolene Strauss Crowned Miss World 2014

    Miss South Africa Rolene Strauss Crowned Miss World 2014
    South Africa's Rolene Strauss bagged the Miss World 2014 title here Sunday. The 22-year-old was crowned by Miss World 2013 Megan Young, who also co-hosted the pageant with Tim Vincent.

    Miss South Africa Rolene Strauss Crowned Miss World 2014

    Man in Scotland charged with Sikh waiter's murder

    Man in Scotland charged with Sikh waiter's murder
     A man has been charged with murdering Indian waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar in Overtown, in Scotland's North Lanarkshire council area, 16 years back, media reported Friday....

    Man in Scotland charged with Sikh waiter's murder

    Psychoactive magic mushroom found in Buckingham Palace

    Psychoactive magic mushroom found in Buckingham Palace
    A hallucinogenic toadstool mushroom has been found growing in the gardens of Britain's Buckingham Palace, a media report said Friday....

    Psychoactive magic mushroom found in Buckingham Palace

    German court foils bid to make Snowden testify in Berlin

    German court foils bid to make Snowden testify in Berlin
    Germany's top court Friday threw out an opposition bid to get whistle-blower Edward Snowden invited to testify in Berlin before a parliamentary committee...

    German court foils bid to make Snowden testify in Berlin

    India visit productive and positive: Putin

    In a meeting here with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council, Putin described his India visit Dec 10-11 as "productive and...

    India visit productive and positive: Putin

    Indian charged with rape, sodomy of Indonesian woman

    Indian charged with rape, sodomy of Indonesian woman
    An Indian national was charged in a sessions court here with three counts of raping and sodomising an Indonesian woman...

    Indian charged with rape, sodomy of Indonesian woman