Jupiter's moon, Europa, may have a large saltwater ocean tucked under its icy, cratered crust, according to scientists studying data gathered by NASA's Galileo, Hubble, Juno spacecraft and Webb Telescope. Scientists believe that Europa's ocean holds twice as much water as Earth's ocean. NASA shared an image on Instagram which was captured on September 29, 2022, at an altitude of 945 miles (1,521 km). NASA's spacecraft Juno has been studying the Jupiter system since 2016, including Europa, one of the most promising places in our solar system to search for life beyond Earth.
"An array of telescopes and spacecraft have studied the Jovian moon, including Galileo, @NASAHubble, Juno, and most recently, @NASAWebb, which detected carbon dioxide on the moon. A new mission is set to study the moon: Europa Clipper is set to launch in October 2024, searching for conditions that could harbor life," NASA wrote on Instagram.
See the post here:
Since being posted, the image has gathered over 297,000 likes on Instagram and a barrage of comments.
A user wrote, "Some form of aquatic or microbial life is surely there waiting to be discovered in that giant ocean. NASA need to have sub-surface probes going there ASAP."
Another user wrote, "We could see a closer Jupiter, the problem more than anything can also be a layer of atmospheric nitrogen along with that, right?"
"Beautiful photograph of the moon," the third user commented on Instagram.
Earlier, the James Webb Space Telescope spotted Jupiter-sized ''planets'' that are free-floating in space and not connected to any star. These objects have been nicknamed Jupiter Mass Binary Objects, or 'JuMBOs''.
