Hua Feng learned that the fountain on Europa may be similar to the fountain on Saturn's moon Enceladus, which is caused by high-pressure water vapor emissions escaping from a very narrow chasm. However, Europa's gravity is 12 times greater than that of Enceladus, so Europa's fountain does not escape into space for the most part like Enceladus, but instead falls back to Europa's surface when it erupts to an altitude of 201 kilometers.

For a long time, many scientists believed that Europa was the most likely planet in the solar system to host life outside of Earth, because Europa hides a huge ocean beneath the ice on Europa's surface, and the presence of liquid water makes it possible for life. NASA also announced on December 11, 2013 that clay-type minerals had been discovered for the first time on Europa's surface, suggesting that Europa may contain organic matter essential for life.

The few large impact craters on Europa's surface are the best evidence in favor of the "thick ice" model. The largest impact crater is surrounded by concentric circles, and the crater is filled fairly flat with fresh ice. Based on this, combined with estimates of the thermal energy generated by tidal forces, it is estimated that the thickness of the ice crust is between 10 and 30 km, which means that the ocean under the ice can be up to 100 km deep.

The Galileo orbiter also observed that Europa itself produces a weak magnetic field (about a quarter of Callisto's magnetic field) that changes periodically when it passes through Jupiter's massive magnetic field. There is speculation that polar ions in the subglacial saltwater ocean are responsible for this magnetic field.

Spectroscopic analysis suggests that the reddish material in Europa's surface fractures may be salts deposited by volatilization of seawater seeping from under the ice (e.g., magnesium sulfate), and hydrogen sulfide is also a plausible explanation. However, since the purity of these two substances is colorless or white, other substances have also been used to explain the cause of the reddish color, such as mixtures containing sulfur.

The fountain on Europa may be similar to the fountain on Saturn's moon Enceladus, which is caused by high-pressure water vapor emissions escaping from a very narrow chasm. However, Europa's gravity is 12 times greater than that of Enceladus, so Europa's fountain does not escape into space for the most part like Enceladus, but instead falls back to Europa's surface when it erupts to an altitude of 201 kilometers.

For a long time, many scientists believed that Europa was the most likely planet in the solar system to host life outside of Earth, because Europa hides a huge ocean beneath the ice on Europa's surface, and the presence of liquid water makes it possible for life. NASA also announced on December 11, 2013 that clay-type minerals had been discovered for the first time on Europa's surface, suggesting that Europa may contain organic matter essential for life.

Europa's mass is so small that the gravitational pull of Jupiter's other moons seriously affects it. Pulled by the gravitational pull of Jupiter and Jupiter's other moons, tidal friction occurs on Europa, heating up Europa, causing ice and liquid water to erupt from Europa's surface, in a spectacular spectacle. Just like the volcanoes on Earth, except that the ice volcanoes on Europa erupt with ice and liquid water.

Jupiter's first moon has volcanoes and its second moon, Europa, which has glaciers, the polar opposite of Europa, has puzzled scientists. Europa is a world of tranquility. Its terrain is very flat, with the highest hill being only 50 meters. Its surface is covered with a layer of crystal clear ice.

Scientists received images from the spacecraft Voyager 2 and speculated that Europa had a solid core with an ice shell, and that between the ice shell and the core, there may be a layer of liquid water. It is this structure that forms Europa's flat terrain and allows it to withstand the impact of meteorites and asteroids without deformation. Astronomers Stevenson and others calculated Europa's heat dissipation, confirming that there was indeed a layer of liquid water between the core and the ice crust. Through experiments in several different models, they concluded that Europa had an underground ocean under the ice at a depth of 25 kilometers.

The latest images sent back by NASA's Galileo Probe show that there is a large amount of liquid water on Jupiter's moon Jupiter II, and the ice mantle on its surface is only 1~2 kilometers thick, and there is an internal volcanic heat source. This is the strongest evidence to date for the existence of liquid water on an extraterrestrial body, and it raises the possibility of searching for extraterrestrial life. If Europa does have organic compounds as scientists envision, then it meets the conditions for life to exist.

Photographs taken by the Galileo probe as it flew just 586 kilometers from Europa show what appears to be icebergs floating on the ice-covered sea. The largest of these icebergs is 13 kilometers wide and can be clearly seen as having broken off from a trenched strip.

Scientists were surprised at how similar the features in the photographs were to photographs of the Earth's Arctic region. Earlier images sent back by Galileo had shown that Europa had surface motion, but the scale of the motion was about 80 kilometers, which may be attributed to the movement of plates without the participation of liquids. The icebergs discovered this time are floating on liquids, not on the malleable mantle.

From the shadows cast by the icebergs, it can be calculated that they are 100~200 meters higher than the surrounding ice sea. Assuming that ice is about 10% less dense than liquid water, as on Earth, about 90% of the iceberg should be below the ice surface. This means that the thickness of the iceberg should be 1~2 km.

Only two impact craters have been found on the frozen surface of the photo, suggesting that they may have been formed less than 1 million years ago. This increases the possibility that the area is newly formed and that liquid water is present, and that this phenomenon may be present elsewhere in Europa.

Newly discovered evidence suggests that Europa's entire surface is orders of magnitude younger. Estimates were made using large-area images with a resolution of less than 1 km, based on the number of large impact craters (about 10 km in diameter), but myopic images of some of these "impact" craters suggest that they were in fact formed by a process of surface reconstruction caused by phenomena inside Europa. For example, a polygonal depression that is clearly visible on a 70-meter resolution myopia image is mistaken for an impact crater on a large image.

The high resolution also allows researchers to count a large number of small impact craters (0.1~1 km in diameter), which makes the crater size/density distribution 3 orders of magnitude lower than the value estimated by the 1 billion year surface lifetime. This means that some areas of the satellite are 1,000 times lower than the original estimate of age. It is not easy to translate the number of impact craters into data on the age of Jupiter's surface, because the amount of meteor passing near Jupiter is not as well known as it is near Earth.

NASA has discovered a huge saltwater lake beneath the ice of Jupiter's moon Europa, roughly equivalent to the volume of the famous Great Lakes in North America combined.

Located about 3 kilometers below Europa's surface ice, the newly discovered lake represents the latest potential breeding ground for life discovered in the solar system, and is considered one of the most suitable environments for life in the solar system besides Earth.

Scientists used images taken by the Galileo probe to compare them with images of floating icebergs and ice sheets at high latitudes on Earth, and preliminarily confirmed "mixed landforms" (the images taken by the Galileo probe show two roughly round, seemingly rugged areas that were once confusing It's an irregular aggregate of floating icebergs colliding with each other, but to confirm the finding, scientists will need more detailed data, which will require a closer look with detectors carrying radars that can penetrate the ice. NASA is considering launching one such spacecraft by 2022, carrying specialized equipment to Europa.

There may be many more undiscovered lakes beneath Europa's ice. Considering that the overlying ice of these subglacial lakes can be thin in some areas, only a few tens of meters thick, this makes it easy to explore potential signs of life in these lakes in the future. This small ice thickness may mean that there may be more opportunities in the future to land here and obtain sedimentary samples from these subglacial lakes for study.

Is Europa heated by gravitational "friction" like Europa? To what extent? Is there some volcanic activity hidden under the ice? According to British media reports, in order to study Jupiter's natural satellite in more depth, scientists also plan to send a probe to Europa for close-up observation.

Scientists are interested in Europa because they believe that there is a large amount of liquid water beneath Europa's thick ice. This geological map of Europa drawn by American scientists will help scientists learn more about the geological evolution of the satellite and determine the basic direction for future in-depth research on it. This geological map was created by scientists based on data obtained by the Galileo and Voyager 2 probes.

As we all know, from 1998 to 2003, "Galileo" and "Voyager 2" respectively carried out relatively close exploration studies of Jupiter and its moons. Based on the data obtained, scientists deduce that the geological history of Europa's surface is relatively young but varied, and that there is little volcanic activity on Europa. Many of the giant rifts that exist on it are most likely due to Jupiter's strong gravitational pull. According to Rauen-Greeley, director of the Department of Planetary Geology at the University of Arizona, the biggest difficulty in mapping Europa is whether scientists trust the data sent back by the probe.

The Voyager-2 probe took a picture of Europa's surface with a resolution of 2 kilometers per pixel. And the photos taken by Galileo during its orbit around Jupiter and its moons can reach a resolution of 12.6-0.23 kilometers per pixel. In creating this geological map of Europa, the scientists combined data from the two probes.

Scientists who believe that life exists on Europa also hold the view that Europa has all the necessary conditions for life to be born: liquid water, abundant energy (mainly Jupiter's strong gravity), and organic compounds. If life does exist on Europa, it will resemble organisms that survive in the hot waters of the Earth's deep ocean. After 2015, scientists will launch a dedicated probe to Jupiter and its moons.

Lawne Greeley and Robert Paparaldo from the U.S. Bureau's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will lead dozens of astronomical experts to study how to explore the Jupiter system, including what kind of flight trajectory the probe will follow and what scientific instruments and equipment it will carry. Scientists also hope to send a robot-equipped probe to Europa so that it can go deep beneath Europa's ice to study its groundwater. However, this idea is very difficult to implement, as Europa's surface is covered with ice that can be up to 20 kilometers thick.

According to British scientist John Zarnetsky, to study Europa, it is necessary to launch orbital probes to find out what lies beneath the ice, and then use other probes to find out.