Recurring Water Vapor Potentially Found on Europa—but Just on One Side - Gizmodo

The icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa appears to be continually feeding its thin atmosphere with water vapor, according to Hubble observations made from 1999 to 2015.

New research published in Geophysical Research Letters describes a stable water atmosphere on Europa.

This results in scattered, transient pockets of water vapor in Europa’s achingly thin atmosphere.

This appears to be a continual process resulting in the perpetual replenishment of water vapor in Europa’s atmosphere.

A paper from earlier this year, co-authored by Roth, found similar traces of water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede.

Roth looked at the strength of these emissions at various wavelengths to infer the presence of water vapor in Europa’s atmosphere.

This potential detection of stable water vapor on Europa came as a surprise, given the temperature discrepancies between it and Ganymede; Europa, because it has a highly reflective surface, gets no warmer than -265 degrees Fahrenheit.