Jupiter's moon Europa lacks oxygen, making it less hospitable for sustaining life
Europa, Jupiter's ice-cloaked ocean moon, contains far less oxygen than previously thought, making it a poor candidate for sustaining alien life. Researchers came to this conclusion after analyzing data compiled from NASA's Juno mission. Calculations from a 2022 flyby of the Jovian moon revealed that Europa's frozen surface only produces about 26 pounds (12 kilograms) of oxygen per second, according to a study published March 4 in the journal Nature Astronomy . This number is far lower than previous computer model predictions, which estimated the surface produced 2,205 pounds (1,000 kg) of oxygen per second. That implies the moon's life-sustaining oxygen supply is "more like a trickle, not a torrent," according to Scientific American . "It's on the lower end of what we would expect," lead study author Jamey Szalay , a plasma physicist at Princeton University, told The New York Times . However, scientists remain optimistic that Jupiter...