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New research study led by planetary researchers from Southwest Research Institute and KTH Royal Institute of Technology recommends that proof for vapor appearing from Jupiter’s icy moon Europa might be less definitive than as soon as thought.
This is an artist’s impression of a water-vapor geyser on Europa. Image credit: University of Cologne.
” The proof for water vapor plumes on Europa isn’t as strong as we initially comprehended it,”stated Dr. Kurt Retherford, a scientist at Southwest Research Institute among the authors of a 2014 paper at first making that assertion.
In the brand-new research study, Dr. Retherford and his associate evaluated information gathered by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (HST/STIS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 1999 and in between 2012 and 2020.
They concentrated on Europa’s Lyman-alpha emission, a particular wavelength of ultraviolet light released and spread by hydrogen atoms.
“One of the troubles in translating the information at that time was figuring out where to put Europa within its context,” Dr. Retherford stated.
“The method Hubble works left some unpredictability in regards to positioning relative to the center of the image.”
“If Europa’s positioning was off even simply by a pixel or more, it might impact how the information gets translated.”
As an outcome, what the scientists believed might be proof of a water vapor plume might likewise simply be analytical sound.
“Our reanalysis took our initial 99.9% self-confidence in the plumes’ presence and lowered it to less than 90% self-confidence,” stated Dr. Lorenz Roth, a scientist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
“That’s just inadequate proof to support the certainty of claims we made at the time.”
“The present dataset does not dismiss the possibility of the water vapor plumes explained in the 2014 paper, however it no longer offers concrete proof of them,” Dr. Retherford stated.
“The description of the phenomena simply does not hold up the very same method any longer.”
“The brand-new information have actually made us reevaluate the strength of the previous paper’s conclusion concerning water vapor plumes.”
“The current analysis likewise supplies enhanced details about the neutral hydrogen atom element of Europa’s getting away environment, stemming from its water ice surface area.”
“We still intend to discover water vapor plumes leaving from Europa.”
“Similar water vapor plumes have actually been verified on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, and Europa’s next-door neighbor Io, another moon of Jupiter, has plumes of sulfur dioxide broadening out into area.”
The group’s brand-new paper was released May 5 in the journal Astronomy & & Astrophysics
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L. Roth et al2026. Europa’s Lyman-α emissions from HST/STIS observations. A&A 709, A59; doi: 10.1051/ 0004-6361/2026 59406
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