Washington: Scientists have found and evidence of a salty ‘lake’ on Jupiter’s moon Europa. This gives new hope that it may be able to support life.
The lake is thought to be locked within the orb’s icy outer shell a few miles beneath the surface.
Experts believe the discovery based on images from the Galileo space probe offers one of the best hopes yet of finding life beyond Earth.
The data suggest there is significant exchange between Europa’s icy shell and the ocean beneath, they added.
US space agency NASA is considering sending a mission to investigate the find.
The body of water could be as big as North America’s Great Lakes.
Europa is the second closest satellite of Jupiter, the biggest planet of the Solar System, and its white icy shell is thought to be six miles thick.
The Galileo spacecraft, launched by the space shuttle Atlantis in 1989, studied Jupiter, which is the largest planet in the solar system, and some of its many moons.
Pictures sent by Galileo revealed cracks and jumbled ice on Jupiter’s surface. Seeking to understand how such topography evolved in a place with such dim sunlight, scientists believe that the answer lies in similar processes on Earth.
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