The mysterious red veins that mark the frozen surface of Europa, Jupiter’s moon which hides a large ocean beneath its surface, could be made from crystals of water and salt that are generated only by the combination of cold and very high pressures. This was discovered by an international group of researchers led by the University of Washington whose work was published in the journal of the United States Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Europa is one of the very few objects in the Solar System in which liquid water is present in a stable way, although it is found under a layer of ice thousands of meters thick, and for this reason it is considered one of the most important sites to look for possible forms of life alien. Seen by the probes that have studied it closely, it has been possible to observe that the frozen surface of Europa is marked by long and deep red ‘stripes’, a coloration due to the presence of particular salt crystals whose origin had been a mystery until now.
By reconstructing the temperatures and very high pressures existing in the depths of Europa’s oceans in the laboratory, it was possible for the first time to reconstruct the origin of these strange crystals composed of a few salt molecules and which develop through a series of chemical reactions that have so far been little investigated . According to the authors, these crystals could therefore have formed about ten kilometers deep under the ice and at temperatures of -50 degrees and then slowly being pushed towards the surface. A discovery that clarifies for the first time the mechanisms that would lead to the strange coloring of Europa and that could also prove useful for energy storage devices that are used commercially that use salt crystals. The researchers now hope to confirm their theory by analyzing samples of Europa’s ice thanks to upcoming space missions such as the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Juice, which will launch in April, or NASA’s Europa Clipper scheduled for 2024.
Source: Ansa
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