New data from Nasa's Juno mission may provide insight into whether Jupiter's moon Europa is habitable.
According to the data, this frigid moon generates 1,000 tonnes of oxygen per day. It's interesting to note that this amount would last a million people a day, according to Interesting Engineering.
When Juno flew within 220 miles of Europa in September 2022, it used its Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) sensor to gather crucial data.
On this Jovian moon, hydrogen outgassing from its ice-covered surface was specifically investigated by the Jade instrument.
Scientists aboard the mission were able to measure the rate at which oxygen is produced on Europa thanks to data from the Jade device.
It was discovered that Europa generates about 26 pounds of oxygen or 12 kilogrammes of oxygen each second.
Previous research has shown oxygen production rates of a few pounds to over 2,000 pounds per second (over 1,000 kilogrammes per second).
Researchers speculate that a small amount of oxygen might find its way into the ocean beneath the moon and serve as a possible source of energy for metabolism.
Living things need this energy to carry out their diverse cellular functions.
Determining Europa's habitability and the likelihood of life-sustaining conditions under the moon's icy surface depends heavily on these new discoveries.
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