A new series of four images of Europe, obtained using the ALMA radio telescope array, helped astronomers create the first global heat map of this icy satellite of Jupiter. The images have an initial resolution of approximately 200 kilometers, sufficient to study the relationship between surface thermal changes and the main geological features of the moon.
The researchers compared the new ALMA observations with a thermal model based on the observations of the Galileo spacecraft. This allowed them to analyze temperature changes and build the first global map of the thermal characteristics of Europe. The data also revealed a mysterious cold spot in the northern hemisphere of the icy moon.
These ALMA images are really interesting because they provide Europe’s first global thermal emission map. Since Europe is an oceanic world with potential geological activity, its surface temperature is of great interest, because it is able to limit regions prone to deep-seated processes.
-Samantha Trumbo, a planetary scientist from the California Institute of Technology (USA)
The data obtained also indicate that under a thin ice cover on Europe there is an ocean of saline water in contact with the stony core. In addition, the satellite has a relatively young surface, whose age ranges from 20 to 180 million years, which indicates that the work has not yet been identified thermal or geological processes.
Unlike optical telescopes, which only detect sunlight reflected from planetary bodies, ALMA can pick up thermal radiation even on relatively cold objects in the solar system, including comets, asteroids, and satellites. And this is an important ability, since the temperature of the surface of Europe never rises above -160 C.
The study of the thermal properties of Europe is a unique way to understand the structure of its surface.
-Brian Butler, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro in New Mexico (USA)
Thermal map of the surface of Europe confirms the presence of a hidden global ocean
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