Icy Europa May Have Plate Tectonics Like Planet Earth

It turns out that Europa may just be able to support life and may be more like Earth than we thought. Scientists have found that the icy moon may have giant plates of ice that shuffle along its surface, much like plates of rocks do on Earth.

The latest findings come after researchers examined pictures from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. The pictures revealed that the surface of Europa was actually moving over time. In fact, the scientists discovered that a "missing" portion in the picture seemed to have been sucked down into the moon's interior at some point.

"We have been puzzled for years as to how all this new terrain could be formed, but we couldn't figure out how it was accommodated," said Louise Prockter, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We finally think we've found the answer."

An explanation for this finding comes in the form of a new system of plate tectonics. It's possible that a shell of ice just a few kilometers thick slides along ice that's warmer and more fluid. When one of these icy plates hits another, it can begin to subduct, diving into the interior of Europa. There, it melts and becomes incorporated into the underlying ice.

Currently, though, scientists are lacking high-resolution images from more areas of Europa. This means that they can't tell if subduction is happening in other locations. Before they can decide anything conclusive about the moon, more information needs to be gathered.

That's why NASA and other scientists have been examining the potential cost of sending a mission to Europa. While costs would run at around $1 billion, NASA is looking at suggestions in order to narrow down which would be the best for investigating the icy moon.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.