The elusive plumes of suspected water vapour shooting out from Jupiter’s moon Europa, first reported in 20131, have shown themselves again. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted the jets erupting three more times.
Scientists speculate that the plumes could be tapping into an ocean buried beneath kilometres of ice. That would make them a direct conduit to a realm that could support life. Researchers have suggested that future spacecraft would be able to study that ocean by looking at the material splattered across Europa's surface by the plumes. Saturn's moon Enceladus has similar watery jets.
Despite numerous attempts2, however, plumes on Europa had not been confirmed until now. “Previously there’s been just one piece of evidence that these things exist,” says team leader William Sparks, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “If they’re real, they have to be intermittent.” Factors as varied as the time of day or the tidal pull of Jupiter could cause the plumes to appear and disappear.
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