{"id":428847,"date":"2026-09-07T16:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T16:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/428847\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T16:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T16:18:21","slug":"san-antonio-scientists-doubt-their-own-jupiter-moon-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/428847\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio scientists doubt their own Jupiter moon discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2014, scientists with Southwest Research Institute and collaborators published a paper<\/a> describing what they thought were giant plumes of water vapor erupting from the surface of Europa, an icy moon orbiting Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Now, they\u2019re not so sure.<\/p>\n

In a follow-up study<\/a> published in May, researchers concluded that the signatures they identified over a decade ago could be explained equally well by a statistical quirk.<\/p>\n

Whether such plumes exist is important given that Europa is one of the most promising candidates for potential life<\/a> beyond Earth within our solar system.<\/p>\n

A hidden ocean<\/p>\n

Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun and by far the largest in our solar system, is orbited by four large moons. Europa is the smallest of those moons \u2014 slightly smaller than Earth\u2019s moon \u2014 and covered in a relatively smooth icy surface.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s evidence that a giant liquid saltwater ocean sits below Europa\u2019s thick ice sheet, potentially containing twice as much water as Earth\u2019s oceans, and maybe even life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers believe that all the necessary ingredients for life, at least as we understand it \u2014 namely liquid water, certain chemical elements and energy \u2014 could be present, making it one of the best places to look for lifeforms beyond our own planet, according to NASA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"This artist\u2019s concept depicts what Europa\u2019s internal structure could look like: an outer shell of ice, perhaps with plumes of material venting from beneath the surface; a deep, global layer of liquid water; and a rocky interior, potentially with hydrothermal vents on the seafloor. Credit: Courtesy \/ NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n

That\u2019s part of the reason why the water plume discovery from 2014 was exciting, explained Kurt\u00a0Retherford, a planetary astronomer at Southwest Research Institute and co-author of the paper.<\/p>\n

Using special imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope, Retherford and his collaborators detected ultraviolet emissions from Europa\u2019s south pole, consistent with plumes of water vapor erupting 124 miles above the surface.<\/p>\n

If these plumes are real and originate from the moon\u2019s subsurface ocean, it would make it a lot easier for scientists to get a clearer picture of the ocean\u2019s chemical soup, and whether it could support life.<\/p>\n

As Retherford explained, flying an unmanned spacecraft through a plume to collect that data is a much easier engineering project than having to drill through the moon\u2019s thick ice sheets. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe could taste and sense what\u2019s in that plume in terms of those minerals or other kind of chemicals that we\u2019re interested in learning more about,\u201d Retherford said. <\/p>\n

Statistical quirk<\/p>\n

Retherford said that the research team did their best to poke holes in their own findings back in 2014, but that these kinds of measurements are vulnerable \u201cto some other kind of little nuance that you only realize years later,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe provided the paper to Science Magazine, and we originally included a sentence saying, \u2018These results need to be verified with additional future measurements,’\u201d Retherford said. \u201cAnd they didn\u2019t like that sentence so much, so we took it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

After re-analyzing their findings and the method they used to identify the signatures, Retherford and his collaborators concluded that the readings could just as easily be explained by the positioning of the Hubble Space Telescope in relation to Europa.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t rule out water vapor plumes, but Retherford no longer sees the signatures as solid evidence of their existence. \u201c(We have) hints of data, but no real smoking gun for water vapor plumes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2030, scientists will get some clarity. A basketball-court-sized spacecraft known as Europa Clipper launched by NASA in 2024 is on its way to the moon to collect a trove of data from its atmosphere. The mission\u2019s main objective is to determine if Europa has conditions suitable for life. <\/p>\n

It will do that by flying instruments as low as 16 miles above the moon\u2019s surface, conducting nearly 50 flybys at different locations. \u201cIt has a full suite of different instruments that are all well suited to go search for plumes and characterize them, if they exist,\u201d Retherford said.<\/p>\n

Two of these instruments were developed<\/a> by SwRI engineers and scientists in San Antonio, including Retherford, and are designed to work in tandem in search for certain chemical compounds in Europa\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\"\"Southwest Research Institute scientists Tracy Becker and Kurt Retherford are pictured in 2022 with one of the SwRI-built instruments on board NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Credit: Courtesy \/ Southwest Research Institute<\/p>\n

After transmitting its data back to Earth, Europa Clipper is planned to crash into Ganymede, Jupiter\u2019s largest moon, in 2034.<\/p>\n

Finding life or the conditions that make it possible on other worlds is an important mission, as it can inform our understanding of how life began on Earth, Retherford explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuropa is pretty attractive in terms of chances to find more of an ecosystem there, or at least signs of habitability,\u201d Retherford said. \u201cUnderstanding where we all came from \u2026 is a big question that we get to ask and help the community understand better. So I\u2019m excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2014, scientists with Southwest Research Institute and collaborators published a paper describing what they thought were giant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7151,148993,148994,148995,148996,148997,148998,1911,106922,82,84,83,2422,59451,92,6251],"class_list":["post-428847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-astronomy","tag-europa","tag-europa-clipper","tag-ganymede","tag-hubble-space-telescope","tag-jupiter","tag-kurt-retherford","tag-nasa","tag-ocean","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-southwest-research-institute","tag-swri","tag-top-story","tag-wc-500-750"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}