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NASA Webb Telescope
@nasawebb

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Europa: Hoth or not? On the icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa, @NASAWebb has discovered carbon dioxide that likely originated in the liquid water ocean below. The carbon dioxide was found to be most abundant in an area called Tara Regio, where there is evidence of material exchanging between Europa’s internal ocean and its crust. Carbon dioxide isn’t stable on Europa’s surface, so scientists believe it was deposited fairly recently, geologically speaking. Understanding the chemistry of this ocean could help determine if it is a good place for life as we know it. Webb builds off Juno, Galileo, New Horizons and other spacecraft who have taken close-ups of Europa. In Oct. 2024, NASA plans to launch the Europa Clipper mission, which will perform dozens of close flybys of Europa to further investigate if it could have conditions for life. More on each image: 1. An image by the #JunoMission spacecraft, taken in Sept. 2022. It shows more than three-quarters of a tan sphere marked with brown scar-like lines all over its surface. The bottom of the sphere fades into the black background. 2. Taken by @NASAWebb, this image shows Europa as a fuzzy blue and white sphere. There are darker blue patches in most of the northern hemisphere, as well as two distinct white patches along the southern hemisphere. Note that Europa appears hazy because it is very small compared to its distance from us (390.4 million miles, or 628.3 million km!). Missions like Voyager and Juno get up close to the bodies they are observing, giving them a high-resolution view. 3. Three compositional maps derived from Webb’s NIRSpec instrument data. These pixelated, circular maps each feature white, blue, or orange squares of various shades. The white pixels represent carbon dioxide ice. The pixelation is due to Europa being 10x10 pixels across the field of view, but there’s amazing data—a full NIRSpec spectrum—in each pixel! Juno - NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing: Kevin M. Gill Webb - NASA, ESA, CSA, Geronimo Villanueva (NASA-GSFC), Samantha K Trumbo (Cornell University. Image processing: Geronimo Villanueva, Alyssa Pagan (STScI) #Europa #Jupiter #JWST #NASA #SolarSystem #StarWars