【14】科技: Jupiter’s Moon Europa May Be Top Candidate for Life

---

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Jupiter’s Moon Europa May Be Top Candidate for Life

---

A view of Jupiter's moon Europa created from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990's, according to NASA, obtained by Reuters May 14, 2018.

A fresh look at old data is giving scientists a new reason to consider Europa, a moon orbiting the planet Jupiter, as a leading candidate in the search for life beyond Earth.

The reason: evidence of water from the moon shooting into space.

NASA, the American space agency, noted an unusual shape -- a bend -- in Europa’s magnetic field in 1997. That was the year when NASA’s Galileo spacecraft passed close to the moon. For a time, it was about 200 kilometers above the surface.

Scientists reported earlier this month on their reexamination of the Galileo data. They now think this bend in the magnetic field could be explained by an active geyser in an underground ocean. The scientists believe the spacecraft traveled through a plume of water.

Elizabeth Turtle is a planetary scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. She told reporters that Europa does have a lot of the qualities that are necessary for life was we know it.

“There’s water. There’s energy. There’s some amount of carbon material. But the habitability of Europa is one of the big questions that we want to understand,” said Turtle.

“And one of the really exciting things about detection of a plume is that that means there may be ways that the material from the ocean — which is likely the most habitable part of Europa because it’s warmer and it’s protected … to come out above the ice shell,” she added.

University of Michigan space physicist Xianzhe Jia led the latest study, which was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The findings support other evidence of plumes from Europa, whose ocean may contain two times as much water as all of Earth’s oceans. In 2012, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope collected evidence of ultraviolet radiation which suggests a plume.

NASA will get a close-up look from a new spacecraft as part of the space agency’s Europa Clipper mission. That spacecraft could be launched as soon as June 2022. The agency says this could provide a chance to examine plumes for signs of life from Europa’s ocean, some of which may be microscopic.

Experts consider Europa to be among the top candidates for life in our solarsystem. But it is not the only one.

For example, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft examined plumes from Enceladus, a moon of the planet Saturn. The water from Enceladus’s ocean contained hydrogen from hydrothermal vents, an environment that may have given rise to life on Earth.

Europa is a little smaller than Earth’s moon. Its ocean is buried under about 15 to 25 kilometers of ice. Experts believe the ocean itself to be anywhere from 60 to 150 kilometers deep.

I’m Pete Musto.

Will Dunham first reported this story for the Reuters news service. Pete Musto adapted his report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

What do you think scientists will find in Europa’s oceans? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

---

Words in This Story

data – n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something

geyser – n. a hole in the ground that shoots out hot water and steam

plume – n. something, such as smoke, steam, or water, that rises into the air in a tall, thin shape

habitability – adj. the ability of a place or location to support life

exciting – adj. causing feelings of interest and enthusiasm

detection – n. the act or process of discovering, finding, or noticing something

journal – n. a magazine that reports on things of special interest to a particular group of people

mission – n. a task or job that someone is given to do

solar system – n. our sun and the planets that move around it

hydrothermal vent(s) – n. an opening in a planet's surface from which naturally heated water issues

---

---

往期回顾：

还没听够看够？关注本公众号（漂泊者乐园微信公众号），定期收听收查看各种精彩内容。跑步入场还不晚哦。

（学习交流微信：littleflute）

特别说明：

A. 如果您想收听全部中级美国英语内容，有两种方法:

(1) 在漂泊者乐园微信公众号回复：zjmgyy 。

(2）点击左下角的 阅读原文 。

B. 本平台（漂泊者乐园微信公众号）会不定期推送各种各样的在线资源，为了不错过收听查看机会，建议广大亲朋好友们关注本公众号（漂泊者乐园微信公众号）。

C. 本平台（漂泊者乐园微信公众号）主要推送以下几类资讯：

（1）各种英语学习资料。

（2）各种音乐学习资料。

（3）各种中国象棋学习资料。

（4）各种计算机学习资料。

（5）各种电子图书。

（6）各种MP3,MP4等音像资源。

D. 本平台（漂泊者乐园微信公众号）诚招合作者。有意者请联系 微信：littleflute。

---

提示： 
1. 回复  president  可收听查看所有《美国总统》文章。
2. 回复  park          可收听查看所有《美国国家公园》文章。
3. 回复  zjmgyy      可收听查看所有《中级美国英语》文章。
4. 回复  bztl           可收听查看所有 《VOA标准听力》。

---