Journal article
Evidence of a plume on Europa from Galileo magnetic and plasma wave signatures
NATURE ASTRONOMY, Vol.2(6), pp.459-464
06/01/2018
DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0450-z
Abstract
The icy surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa, is thought to lie on top of a global ocean(1-4). Signatures in some Hubble Space Telescope images have been associated with putative water plumes rising above Europa's surface(5,6), providing support for the ocean theory. However, all telescopic detections reported were made at the limit of sensitivity of the data(5-7), thereby calling for a search for plume signatures in in-situ measurements. Here, we report in-situ evidence of a plume on Europa from the magnetic field and plasma wave observations acquired on Galileo's closest encounter with the moon. During this flyby, which dropped below 400 km altitude, the magnetometer(8) recorded an approximately 1,000-kilometre-scale field rotation and a decrease of over 200 nT in field magnitude, and the Plasma Wave Spectrometer(9) registered intense localized wave emissions indicative of a brief but substantial increase in plasma density. We show that the location, duration and variations of the magnetic field and plasma wave measurements are consistent with the interaction of Jupiter's corotating plasma with Europa if a plume with characteristics inferred from Hubble images were erupting from the region of Europa's thermal anomalies. These results provide strong independent evidence of the presence of plumes at Europa.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Evidence of a plume on Europa from Galileo magnetic and plasma wave signatures
- Creators
- Xianzhe Jia - University of Michigan–Ann ArborMargaret G. Kivelson - University of Michigan–Ann ArborKrishan K. Khurana - Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Earth Planetary & Space Sci, Los Angeles, CA USAWilliam S. Kurth - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- NATURE ASTRONOMY, Vol.2(6), pp.459-464
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41550-018-0450-z
- ISSN
- 2397-3366
- eISSN
- 2397-3366
- Number of pages
- 6
- Grant note
- 143448 / NASA through the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University UTA16-001080 / NASA through the University of Texas at Austin NNX13AL05G:000002; NNX14AO24G; NNX12AM74G; NNX15AH28G / NASA; National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) 1532308 / NASA through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/01/2018
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984455283402771
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