Europa Ice Structure Deformities Generate Intense Heat Than Friction

A new research study about the strange qualities of Jupiter's ice moon Europa's cracked crust may reveal interesting, yet intriguing details about the moon's sub-surface ocean.

Some of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island's researchers have merged their observations of the ice moon with laboratory experiments and computer models, according to a feature by Tech Times. With the materials, they aim to discover information about the tidal compression caused by the gravitational field. The researchers believe that it may be causing Europa's cracked ice to generate more heat, which creates excitement for the search for lifeforms in the moon.

Europa has a sub-surface ocean that is protected by a cracked crust of ice that appears to move like the Earth's continental plates. The tidal pressures from the moon's orbit around Jupiter result to an internal dynamo, which heats the moon from the core, keeping the ocean's liquid state.

Christine McCarthy of Columbia University launched a project to simulate what might be happening in the moon's crust. Loading Europa's ice samples into Brown University's compression apparatus could measure the amount of heating and deformation.

It was previously believed that heating was related to the size of the ice grain having friction with other grains. However, McCarthy reported that there was no difference in heat flux in varying size of ice grain samples. She realized that heating instead comes from microscopic defects in the ice. More heat is generated when deformation is greater.

The discovery of heat being generated by the deformities in the microscopic structure of ice and of the amount of heat being generated is more than the previously believed frictional heating. This has opened a new window into the physics of the moon's icy crust and into the chemistry of the liquid ocean below it, according to a feature by the Discover News.

NASA is currently planning what instruments the "Europa Clipper" mission would bring to study the ice moon. The findings of this research contributes to a better understanding of the habitable potential of the moon's mysterious liquid ocean.