Repeated analysis of the data collected by the Galileo spacecraft at two points on the alleged water geysers on the surface of Europe did not reveal the expected thermal signatures and questioned the existence of water plumes on Jupiter’s satellite. The results are presented at the 50th annual meeting of the Department of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Knoxville (USA).
We searched all available Galileo thermal data at potential geyser sites. As a result, there was nothing special about them, that is, no hint of hot spots. This is surprising, since on Enceladus water plumes have a clear signature in their places of origin. This suggests that either the geysers on Europe and Enceladus are very different, or on the satellite of Jupiter, they are very rare and random, or their signs are too weak for current observations, or they do not exist.
-Julie Rathbun, a scientist from the Planetary Scientific Institute (USA)
Geysers are jets of gas escaping from the surface of the planet. In order for the stream to be thrown upward, a source of energy is needed that heats the surface around the plume. This is exactly what is recorded on Enceladus – a hot area around the erupting water jets – and it is unmistakably identified.
In 2012 and 2016, the Hubble space telescope allegedly observed a projection of emissions at the time of passage of Europe in front of Jupiter, which were pulled out 200 kilometers above the satellite surface. However, this interpretation of the data is still under discussion. In May 2018, scientists presented new evidence of the existence of geysers, which came from measurements of the magnetic field and plasma from the same Galileo. But the absence of hot spots on Europe around geysers casts doubt on previous findings and suggests that if water loops on its surface exist at all, then their nature is very different from those observed on Saturn’s satellite and on Earth.
Planetologists have questioned the existence of water geysers in Europe
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