{"id":596099,"date":"2026-08-17T14:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596099\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T14:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:58:12","slug":"a-spacecraft-is-on-its-way-to-study-jupiters-moon-for-signs-of-life-in-water-plumes-but-they-might-not-even-be-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596099\/","title":{"rendered":"A spacecraft is on its way to study Jupiter’s moon for signs of life in water plumes \u2013\u00a0but they might not even be there"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scientists who helped find one of the most intriguing features of Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa<\/a> \u2013 giant plumes of water vapour erupting from its surface \u2013 are now less convinced of their 2014 discovery.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, reviewed 14 years of observations and concluded that many detections of Europa\u2019s plumes can be explained by other phenomena.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Europa has long fascinated scientists because of the global ocean believed to exist beneath its frozen crust.<\/p>\n

Since 2012, several studies using the Hubble Space Telescope have reported possible water vapour rising hundreds of kilometres above the surface.<\/p>\n

\"ImagesImages of Jupiter’s moon Europa captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft. Credit: NASA\/JPL\/DLR<\/p>\n

\"AA Hubble Space Telescope image of Europa showing suspected plumes of water vapour erupting at the 7 o’clock mark. Credits: NASA\/ESA\/W. Sparks (STScI)\/USGS Astrogeology Science Center<\/p>\n

It was thought such plumes could provide a direct window into the moon\u2019s subsurface ocean.<\/p>\n

Similar plumes at Saturn’s moon Enceladus<\/a> were investigated by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft<\/a> during its mission, revealing organic molecules \u2013\u00a0the key ingredients of life \u2013 were present in Enceladus’s subsurface ocean<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s hoped that similar explorations by spacecraft at Europa could prove just as fruitful.<\/p>\n

However, this new study found that many of the observations of Europa’s suspected plumes are difficult to reproduce and often rely on indirect measurements.<\/p>\n

\"PlumesPlumes of water ice and vapour spray from the south polar region of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Credit: NASA\/JPL\/Space Science Institute<\/p>\n

The researchers argue alternative explanations such as charged-particle interactions, observational limitations and data-processing effects may account for several plume detections.<\/p>\n

The study does not rule out the possibility that plumes exist. Instead, it suggests that they may be less frequent, smaller or more difficult to detect than previously assumed.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper<\/a>, which launched in 2024, could provide the definitive test when it arrives in the Jovian system in 2030 to make the most detailed examination yet of whether water from Europa\u2019s hidden ocean is escaping into space. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scientists who helped find one of the most intriguing features of Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa \u2013 giant plumes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-596099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}