Water vapour plumes on Jupiter's moon Europa (artist's impression)
Date: 11 December 2013
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: Europa and Jupiter
Copyright: See below
This artist's impression shows Jupiter and its moon Europa using actual Jupiter and Europa images in visible light. The Hubble ultraviolet images showing the faint emission from the water vapour plumes have been superimposed, respecting the size but not the brightness of the plumes.
Astronomers using Hubble have detected signs of water vapour being vented off this moon, creating variable plumes near its south pole – the first observational evidence of water vapour being ejected off the moon's surface.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Kornmesser.
Science Credit: NASA, ESA, L. Roth (Southwest Research Institute and University of Cologne, Germany), J. Saur (University of Cologne, Germany), K. Retherford (Southwest Research Institute), D. Strobel and P. Feldman (Johns Hopkins University), M. McGrath (Marshall Space Flight Center), and F. Nimmo (University of California, Santa Cruz)
