Detecting water jets shot from Jupiter's southern pole

Scientists on Dec. 13 said the new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show that there are water rays erupting from the southern tip of Europa - Jupiter's moon-covered moon is thought to contain a underground ocean.

If this is confirmed, the new finding will greatly impact the assessments of the scientific world, suggesting that the Moon has some of the most important findings, says planetary scientist Kurt Retherford of the Southwest Research Institute. Basic conditions for survival like Earth.

Kurt Retherford said the team saw the phenomenon at a single point, so it would be premature to publish this as a global influence.

The researchers used the Hubble space telescope to detect a 200km-high stream of steam fired from the southernmost region of Europa in December 2012.

Graphic image simulating water rays emanating from the Southern pole of Europa.(Source: NASA)

Meanwhile, Hubble's observation in the above area in October 1999 and November 2012, did not detect this. Previously, the Galileo spacecraft (currently defunct) has nine times passed through Europa in the late 1990s, but it has not been detected in this form.

Scientists believe that steam can escape from cracks in ice in the southernmost region of Europa.

Scientists believe steam can escape from the southern polar ice crack Europa, which can be opened by gravitational stress at the time when the moon is far away from Jupiter.

When Europa is near Jupiter, it will receive stresses and exploding poles and cracks close. Then, when Europa moves away from Jupiter, it will no longer crack and the poles will move out, at which point cracks will be opened. Water jets are most likely the result of frictional heat from rubbing ice blocks or may also be caused by accidental timing of comets.

Similar water jets were discovered on Saturn's moon Enceladus, because it has a gravitational force 12 times lower than Europa, and can fire its rays farther into space.

Scientists are still continuing to monitor the phenomenon before announcing new discoveries globally.