Impacts Churn the Surface of Europa

New research helps understand the effects of constant impact gardening on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa and how that may affect the search for life.

IMAGE: This image taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s shows Europa’s ice shell, marked by fractures and impact craters, and it evokes a sense of mystery about what lies within it and beneath that shell. The color variations on the surface show that there’s communication between the surface and subsurface, the nature of which is a subject of intense study. This paper helps us to understand the effects of constant surface bombardment on materials that may be available for study at the surface. CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

While Enceladus is on the radar for possible life, there are currently no missions planned to go to the tiny world. However, another icy moon, larger and just as interesting, Europa, is on the mission schedule with the Europa Clipper.