The core of Jupiter's ocean moon Europa might have formed billions of years after the rest of it did, if indeed it has formed at all, a new study finds.
Europa, Jupiter's fourth-largest moon, is covered in an icy shell. However, researchers suspect that underneath its frozen crust, Europa hosts a saltwater ocean churning over its rocky mantle. It may possess "more liquid water than Earth," study lead author Kevin Trinh, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe, told Space.com.
Previous research suggests that Europa may be habitable — for instance, seafloor volcanoes and hydrothermal vents may help deliver life-sustaining heat and biologically useful molecules into its ocean. In order to know whether such potentially life-supporting activity might take place on Europa, scientists must understand the nature of the Jupiter moon's interior and how it might have evolved over time.
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