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Hubble Finds Mysterious Replenishment of Water Vapor on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Lead image: Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute Ice Sublimating Off the Surface Replenishes a Tenuous Envelope You would think that living half-a-billion miles from the Sun would be no place to call home. But planetary astronomers are very interested in exploring the moon Europa in search of life. Slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, Europa orbits monstrous Jupiter. Surface temperatures on the icy moon never rise above a frigid minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit. A temperature so cold that water-ice is as hard as rock. Yet, beneath the solid ice crust there may be a global ocean with more water than…

NASA Perseverance Mars Rover Images Confirm Jezero Crater Is an Ancient Martian Lake

Lead Image: Images from the Perseverance rover confirm that Jezero crater is an ancient Martian lake, researchers say. This Mastcam-Z enhanced color photo mosaic shows a butte near Jezero crater informally dubbed “Kodiak” by the rover team. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS; edited by Jim Bell/ASU The findings include signs of flash flooding that carried huge boulders downstream into the lakebed. The first scientific analysis of images taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover has now confirmed that Mars’ Jezero crater — which today is a dry, wind-eroded depression — was once a quiet lake, fed steadily by a small river some 3.7 billion years…

Extreme Exoplanet – An Ultra-Hot Jupiter Where It Rains Iron – Even More Exotic Than Originally Thought

Lead image: The fiery exoplanet WASP-76b – a so-called hot Jupiter, where it rains iron – may be hotter than previously thought. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser Considered an ultra-hot Jupiter – a place where iron gets vaporized, condenses on the night side and then falls from the sky like rain – the fiery, inferno-like WASP-76b exoplanet may be even more sizzling than scientists had realized. An international team, led by scientists at Cornell University, University of Toronto and Queen’s University Belfast, reports the discovery of ionized calcium on the planet – suggesting an atmospheric temperature higher than previously thought, or strong upper atmosphere…

NASA’s Lucy Mission To Explore the Jupiter Trojan Asteroids – “It’s Almost Like We’re Travelling Back in Time”

Lead image: Lucy will explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids – thought to be “fossils of planet formation.” Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will launch in October 2021 on a 12-year journey to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. The Lucy mission will include three Earth gravity assists and visits to eight asteroids. Called “Trojans” after characters from Greek mythology, most of Lucy’s target asteroids are left over from the formation of the solar system. These Trojans circle the Sun in two swarms: one that precedes and one that follows Jupiter in its orbit of the Sun. Lucy will be…