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Hubble Discovers Water Plumes Over Europa
astroengine writes "Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have found plumes of water vapor shooting off the southern pole of Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter that is believed to have an underground ocean. If confirmed — so far the plumes have only been spotted once — the finding could have implications for the moon's suitability for life and help explain why its surface appears relatively young and crater-free. "The plumes are incredibly exciting, if they are there. They're bringing up material from in the ocean, perhaps there's organic material that will be laying on the surface of the south pole. Those are the things that we want to know about," James Green, head of NASA's planetary science programs, told reporters at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco on Thursday."
We've known about the plumes for a long time:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/LPSC99/pdf/1603.pdf
This is just direct confirmation of what we already knew about.
It's pretty clear Europa probably has some form of life under the ice. The odds are definitely in it's favor. It's just a matter of confirming it, just like these plumes. The really exciting bit will be if it's multicellular or even fish like animals. I really hope I live long enough to see it.
Presuming these plumes are not one off events, couldn't we send an orbiter there to sample the plumes to at least get some idea of the chemistry of Europa's ocean, if not possibly outright detect signs of life?
Yes, and according to the BBC article NASA researchers hope to do just that. However, Europa Clipper is expensive and long way off. They are hoping that a European probe due to launch in 2022 (like that is close) will do the job even though is not intended to go over the poles, which is where the plumes were seen.