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New radar observations made between 2011 and 2024 indicate that Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons, reflects signals in an unusual way and may hold important information about the transparency, purity, and structure of its subsurface ice.
Europa has returned to the center of investigation into Jupiter’s icy moons after radar observations revealed signs of clean, porous, and reflective ice, with clues about invisible internal layers.
Radar fills the gap about Europa
Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto draw attention for ice and the suspicion of subsurface oceans. Even so, their radar properties had not been measured since 1987 and 1991.
Tunhui Tina Xie, from the University of California, and Jean-Luc Margot observed Europa between 2011 and 2024.
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The measurements used the Goldstone Radar and the Green Bank Telescope. Radio waves can penetrate pure ice and carry information about internal structure.
Clean ice amplifies the echo
The data shows that Europa’s radar albedo, a measure of how much it shines to radar, is greater than that of typical planets and asteroids.
The reflected signal is dominated by the same circular polarization as the transmitted beam. This characteristic indicates multiple scattering in clean and porous ice, reinforcing the coherent backscatter opposition effect.
In this process, radio waves bounce inside the ice before returning to the telescope, amplifying the recorded echo.
Missions can use this data
The bistatic configuration, with transmission in Goldstone and reception in Goldstone and Green Bank, allowed testing changes as the angle varied.
The brightness remained constant with an increase in angle. This indicates that the bright peak is wider than the sampled range and limits the depth of wave diffusion.
The restriction on ice transparency should help in interpreting data collected by spacecraft on missions like the Europa Clipper.
What do you think of these new clues about Europa and Jupiter’s icy moons? Leave your opinion in the comments, especially if you believe radar observations can be decisive in better understanding the ice and the scientific potential of these missions.
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