scientist have revealed new grounds for tectonic activity on Jupiter ’s synodic month Europa , which could supply food to living in the ocean below .
Published in theJournal of Geophysical Research : major planet , scientist from Brown University in Rhode Island used calculator modeling to see if subduction was potential in Europa ’s icy plate .
This is the process through which one architectonic home base slip underneath another . Earth is the only place we decidedly know has architectonic activeness , although Mercury looks like itmight too .
This research suggests that Europa might also be such a earth , somethingtheorized before . It take care at how the process would take place on this polar globe , and suggests that Europa ’s icy shell could have two layers . One would be a tenuous proscribed level of very cold ice , the other a slightly warmer stratum of convecting ice .
If there are varying amounts of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in the outer frosty scale , then it might be possible for plates from the outer shell to submerge into the lower eggshell . Or , in other words , subduction .
On Europa , we can see region where the icy scale looks to be expand , interchangeable to mid - ocean spreading ridge on Earth . However , we were n’t quite sure how the process would take place , something this research go for to partially resolve .
“ We have this evidence of extension and spread , so the question becomes where does that material go ? ” said Brandon Johnson , lead author of the cogitation , in astatement .
“ On Earth , the answer is subduction zones . What we show is that under fairish assumption for conditions on Europa , subduction could be materialise there as well , which is really exciting . ”
The research is especially exciting because the Earth’s surface crust is potential to be enriched with chemic food for life like oxidants . If plate are subducting , then this food could derive into link with the sea below the icy surface .
“ If indeed there ’s life in that sea , subduction offers a room to supply the nutrients it would need , ” Johnson add in the assertion .
“ It ’s enchanting to guess that we might have plate tectonics somewhere other than Earth . ”
There ’s still some agency to go until we love what ’s going on for sure , but it ’s still pretty promising . In our hunting for life elsewhere Europa look like a somewhat upright stake , and if it has plate tectonics , then any life in its sea might just have a better probability of surviving .
