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Jupiter moon like giant 'lava lamp'
By Richard Stenger
(CNN) -- Immense red freckles on Jupiter's moon Europa could serve as geologic elevators, possibly transporting microbial life from a subterranean ocean to the icy surface, according to space scientists. The spots, each some six miles (10 kilometers) wide, appear in vivid detail in newly released images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, which is preparing for its final scientific mission. The likeness in shape and size of the ruddy patches suggests that warmer ice and slush from the interior churn to the surface while colder surface ice chunks sink down, project researchers said this week. "Europa acts like a planetary lava lamp, carrying material from near the surface down to the ocean, and, if they exist, transporting organisms up toward the surface," said Robert Pappalardo of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The freckle composite shots, released this week by NASA, combine high-resolution observations from two Europa flybys by Galileo, which has orbited Jupiter nearly seven years. Other observations from the spacecraft have provided strong evidence that sloshing miles under the satellite's icy exterior is a vast ocean, possibly with the conditions necessary to sustain life. The reddish eruptions could offer clues about the composition of the liquid reservoir and whether it could support primitive microbes, according to Galileo scientists. Rather than drill down some 13 miles or so in the ice, a robotic lander could sample material just below the surface in one of the spots, Pappalardo suggested. "A mile or two beneath the surface, the conditions might be warm enough to allow organisms to survive," he said. Pappalardo and colleagues presented their report this week at a planetary geology conference in Denver, Colorado. Other researchers at the gathering were to discuss engineering proposals for robotic Europa lander missions. In an effort to prevent possible contamination of Europa, NASA scientists are steering Galileo on a crash course with Jupiter. Before its demise next year, the aging craft will fire up its instruments for a final pass next week over Almathea, a tiny inner moon inside Jupiter's dangerous radiation belts.
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