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Một đại dương trên mặt trăng được cho là có thể ở được đối mặt với việc thiếu oxy
06 Mar, 2024
nghiên cứu mới cho thấy lượng nguyên tố trên mặt trăng của Sao Mộc nằm ở mức thấp hơn so với ước tính trước đó
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Under its bright, frosty shell, Jupiter’s moon Europa is thought to harbor a salty ocean (nuôi dưỡng đại dương mặn) , making it a world that might be one of the most habitable places in our solar system.
But most life as we know it needs oxygen. And it’s an open question whether Europa’s ocean has it.
Now, astronomers have nailed down how much of the molecule (phân tử) gets made at the icy moon’s surface, which could be a source of oxygen for the waters below. Using data from NASA’s Juno mission, the results, published on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that the frozen world generates less oxygen than some astronomers (nhà thiên văn học) may have hoped for.
Astronomers speculate that this oxygen might move into Europa’s watery underworld. If so, it could mix with volcanic material (vật liệu núi lửa) from the seafloor, creating “a chemical soup that may end up making life,” said Fran Bagenal, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The Juno orbiter, which launched in 2011 to discover what lies beneath Jupiter’s thick veil of clouds, is now on an extended mission exploring the planet’s rings and moons. Aboard the vehicle is an instrument called JADE, short for Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment. Dr. Szalay’s team studied data collected by JADE as Juno flew through the plasma engulfing Europa.
While earlier studies reported widely varying ranges up to 2,245 pounds per second, this result shows the higher end of that range was unlikely. But according to Dr. Bagenal, this doesn’t necessarily harm Europa’s potential for habitability.
Juno won’t make any more close flybys of the global water world, but next-generation missions specifically designed to study Europa might find more answers. The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, expected to arrive at the Jovian system in 2031, aims to confirm the existence (xác nhận sự tồn tại) and size of Europa’s ocean. And NASA’s Europa Clipper, scheduled to launch in October, will investigate how the moon’s icy shell interacts with the water below.
source: nytimes,
Tags: Hồng Nhungscience
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