Jupiter’s icy moon Europa repeatedly spews plumes of water into space, and spacecraft set to visit the moon in a few years might be able to take a taste. The Hubble Space Telescope has now glimpsed the plumes twice in four years, which suggests Europa has an active ocean underneath its frozen crust – and cements Europa’s status as one of the best places in the solar system to look for life beyond Earth.
“If there are plumes emerging from Europa, it is significant because it means we may be able to explore that ocean for organic chemicals or even signs of life without having to drill through unknown miles of ice,” says William Sparks at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which manages Hubble.
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