Pasadena, California – Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has been found to produce 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours, as reported by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Monday. While this amount of oxygen is enough to sustain a million humans day, it is actually less than previously believed. The discovery of this substantial oxygen production on Europa could have implications for the moon’s underground ocean, which is estimated to contain twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined.
According to NASA, Europa, the sixth-closest moon to Jupiter, is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and is believed to have a rocky mantle and an iron core. The latest findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, reveal that Europa is producing around 26 pounds of oxygen every second. This amount is significantly lower than the previous estimation of over 2,000 pounds of oxygen per second.
The new estimate was based on the measurement of hydrogen being released from Europa’s surface, collected by NASA’s space probe Juno during a flyby in 2022. Lead author James Szalay of Princeton University expressed excitement over the Juno mission’s capability to directly measure the composition of charged particles shed from Europa’s atmosphere, providing valuable insights into the moon’s oxygen production.
Despite having oxygen, Europa may not be a safe place for humans due to the intense radiation present on its surface. Estimates suggest that an astronaut in a spacesuit would not be able to survive more than a day on Europa solely due to this radiation. NASA’s Juno mission, launched in 2011, aims to investigate the amount of water and oxygen present on Jupiter, crucial for understanding the formation of the planet and the transfer of heavy elements across the solar system.
NASA is gearing up to launch the Europa Clipper on Oct. 10, 2024, to conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa and explore the possibility of conditions suitable for life. Europa is considered one of the most promising places in our solar system to find environments conducive to life beyond Earth. The mission aims to delve deeper into our understanding of icy moons and their potential for sustaining life.