Strange Dark Lines On Europa Research Paper

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For more than 10 years, NASA (www.nasa.gov) scientists have pondered that Europa’s strange dark lines could result from, and now it has been discovered that they could be sea salt in an ocean below the surface of this moon of Jupiter that was discolored due to radiation exposure.
The discovery of sea salt is considered to be a scientific adventure in the search for life on other worlds, since it may mean that Europa’s sea is interrelated to its surface, which could be a factor in whether or not there is life on the moon of Jupiter.
Radiation May Have Helped Create Strange Dark Lines of Europa
The research is being done by NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (www.jpl.nasa.gov) in Pasadena, California. They already knew that Europa was being radiated due to the strong magnetic fields of Jupiter and they now believe the radiation could be part of what is forming the strange dark lines on Europa’s surface. …show more content…

Sulfur could still be part of some of the various colors of the strange dark lines, say researchers, but only for the areas that are the youngest.
The new experiment involved chilling sodium chloride samples down to -279 Fahrenheit, or -173 Celsius, and then saturating them with electrons to create an atmosphere similar to the conditions on Europa’s surface. When they did this, the salt turned from white to a yellow-brown color, which is the same color as the strange dark lines of Europa. According to the scientists, this showed that it was a close match to the data on the strange dark lines that NASA has from their spacecraft

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