Hubble image archive

Artist's Concept of Europa Water Vapor Plume

This is an artist's concept of a plume of water vapor thought to be ejected off of the frigid, icy surface of the Jovian moon Europa, located 500 million miles from the Sun. Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopic measurements lead scientists to calculate that the plume rises to an...

Date
Jan 1, 2013
Mission
Hubble Space Telescope
Archive ID
hubblesite-images-2013-55-3276-image
By

This is an artist's concept of a plume of water vapor thought to be ejected off of the frigid, icy surface of the Jovian moon Europa, located 500 million miles from the Sun. Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopic measurements lead scientists to calculate that the plume rises to an altitude of 125 miles and then probably rains frost back onto the moon's surface. Previous findings already point to a subsurface ocean under Europa's icy crust.

Credits

Artwork Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Retherford (Southwest Research Institute)

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Source

Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.

View on NASA.gov

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