NASA’s Juno mission has provided new data on the thickness and structure of the icy shell covering Jupiter’s moon Europa. The mission’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) revealed that the shell is around 18 miles thick in the region observed during Juno’s 2022 flyby. This measurement is the first to differentiate between thin and thick shell models, which previously estimated the ice shell’s thickness to be anywhere from less than half a mile to tens of miles.
Europa, slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, is considered one of the solar system’s top science targets. This new information from Juno’s observations will help scientists better understand the moon’s subsurface and the potential for life beneath the icy surface.
Original Source: NASA