Europa harbors possible "warm ice" or liquid water

17 Jun 2002

Tantalizing new images of Jupiter's moon Europa from NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicate that "warm ice" or even liquid water may have existed, and perhaps still exists today beneath Europa's cracked icy crust. Galileo scientists are poring over images that show places on Europa resembling ice floes in Earth's polar regions, along with suggestions of geyser-like eruptions and details of long dark bands centered with white stripes that stretch like interstate highways across Europa's face.

The results bring scientists a step closer to determining whether Europa has environmental "niches" warm enough and wet enough to meet the requirements to host life, said Dr. Ronald Greeley, a Galileo imaging team scientist and a geologist at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.Europa is about the size of Earth's Moon and is covered largely with smooth white and brownish-tinted ice, instead of large craters like so many other bodies in the Solar System. Scientists believe its cracked cue-ball appearance is due to stressing caused by the contorting tidal effects of Jupiter's strong gravity. They speculate that the warmth generated by tidal heating may have been sufficient to soften or even liquefy some portion of Europa's icy covering.