NASA prepares to explore the beautiful moon of Jupiter

NASA director Charles Bolden said on February 2 that the agency will select projects to serve Jupiter's moon exploration.

>>>Mini submarine explores Jupiter's moon

Located 390 million miles from Earth, Europa is an ice sphere containing a giant ocean beneath the surface. It is so big that scientists think the amount of liquid water that Europa possesses can be double or triple that of the Earth. Based on the fact that life has evolved from the oceans on Earth, Europa is also capable of forming life.

Not only that, Europa also has a gorgeous appearance. At 1,900 miles in diameter, Europa is only slightly smaller than the Earth's Moon. The brown lines that make Europa particularly beautiful are still a mystery, but the leading hypotheses suggest that it is a sign that the Europa's shell has cracked open, causing the water to have high temperatures and many impurities. overflow and freeze.

The strong gravitational attraction between Jupiter and the Moon Europa may have caused many powerful tidal waves to sweep across the surface, similar to the Moon's attraction to the sea on Earth. The strong waves caused the Europa shell to crack and make the surface water overflow. But that is not the only effect of Jupiter on its Moon.

Astronomer Kevin Hand explains: "Europa has liquid water because it revolves around Jupiter, and the gravitational pull and pull between them has caused Europa to bend up and down. Tidal energy has turned into a ghost. close and heat help maintain liquid water under the ice surface ".

Scientists have noticed the appearance of a collision hole called Pwyll on the surface of Europa, a convincing evidence for the existence of a giant ocean beneath the surface of the Moon. They assumed that when the collision occurred, the freezing water molecules were scattered everywhere and left bright white lines around the dark craters.

NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured an image of a 16-mile-diameter Pwyll crater in 1998. Although Galileo has captured detailed images of Europa, astronomers still don't know the exact amount. water or the possibility of survival under this moon's ice surface. So last year, NASA launched a request for information for the scientific community to gather ideas for the most suitable and economical Europa research approach.

So far, it has been possible that some of the results have come to fruition, as scientists are looking forward to learning more about this year's quest to discover Europa this spring.

According to NASA, this task includes the following tasks:

- Find out the characteristics of the ocean on Europa and its relation to the inner structure of the Moon.

- Find out the characteristics of the ice surface and semi-surface water, especially the heterogeneity and nature of the exchange of seawater and ice on the surface.

- Determining surface properties, and chemical structure related to the ability to form a living environment.

- Understand characteristics of lunar surface formation, identify and identify possible study locations in the future.

- Understand the cosmic environment of Europa and its interaction with magnetic fields.