It Looks Like Europa Doesn’t Have Plumes of Water Vapour After All

This artist's illustration shows what the water vapour plumes tentatively detected on Jupiter's icy moon Europa would look like. A 2014 paper based on Hubble observations showed that these intermittent plumes reach 200 km above Europa's surface. In the following couple of years, subsequent research also found them. But new research from the original discoverers is reconsidering the original findings. Image Credit: University of Cologne.

In 2014, researchers presented the discovery of water vapour plumes being emitted from Jupiter’s moon Europa. This caused quite a stir; it meant that the moon’s buried ocean was accessible without contending with the thick ice shell that concealed it. But new research by the same researchers questions those detections.

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