Jupiter’s moon Europa produces enough oxygen for one million humans to breathe every day: Study

The icy moon of planet Jupiter, Europa, has been producing 1,000 tonnes of oxygen every 24 hours which is sufficient to keep one million humans breathing, as per the data collected by the Juno spacecraft, which is orbiting the planet.

The new findings, however, have proven that in reality Europa produces less amount of oxygen than was previously believed.

The new study was published in Nature Astronomy with the use of data collected by Juno's Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument which measures the amount of hydrogen that has out gassed the surface of the icy moon.

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According to the study, every second 12kg of oxygen is being produced at Europa. It was previously estimated to be as much as 1,000kg every second.

Is Europa's subsurface ocean a habitable place?

However, according to some planetary scientists, some of the oxygen produced on Jupiter's moon is entering Europa's subsurface ocean and the icy moon has been one of the most suitable places to hunt for habitable conditions beyond Earth in the Solar System.

“Europa is like an ice ball slowly losing its water in a flowing stream. Except, in this case, the stream is a fluid of ionised particles swept around Jupiter by its extraordinary magnetic field. When these ionized particles impact Europa, they break up the water-ice molecule by molecule on the surface to produce hydrogen and oxygen. In a way, the entire ice shell is being continuously eroded by waves of charged particles washing up upon it,” said Jamey Szalay from Princeton University, while speaking to NASA.

Juno spacecraft measured the hydrogen while flying overhead on September 29, 2022. It was 354 kilometres above Europa as JADE started recording data.

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The spacecraft took measurements of hydrogen and oxygen ions which had been created by bombarding charged particles and then “picked up” by the magnetic field of Jupiter.

“Our ability to fly close to the Galilean satellites during our extended mission allowed us to start tackling a breadth of science, including some unique opportunities to contribute to the investigation of Europa’s habitability. And we’re not done yet. More moon flybys and the first exploration of Jupiter’s close ring and polar atmosphere are yet to come,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator.

(With inputs from agencies)