James Webb Telescope Spots Carbon Possibly Flowing in Europa's Oceans

pcmag.com:

For the first time, scientists have spotted a carbon dioxide source on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, thanks to observations from the James Webb Space Telescope. 

The telescope recently captured images of the moon, which has been thought to harbor a liquid ocean under its icy crust. During the observations, James Webb also conducted a spectrograph of Europa, which revealed evidence of carbon dioxide possibly circulating from the moon’s oceans. 

The finding is important because scientists had never been able to confirm if the oceans of Europa “contained the chemicals needed for life, particularly carbon,” NASA says. 

“Analysis indicates that this carbon likely originated in the subsurface ocean and was not delivered by meteorites or other external sources,” the space agency added. “Moreover, it was deposited on a geologically recent timescale.” 

The evidence of carbon was spotted using spectroscopy, which involves examining the light from the moon and the different wavelengths. Since chemical interactions emit unique signatures through their light, the data can be used to discern what elements are present, even though the object resides hundreds of millions of miles away.

The spectrograph from James Webb showed the presence of crystalline carbon dioxide and an "amorphous" type of carbon dioxide on the moon, where temperatures can range from -210 degrees to -370 degree Fahrenheit.

The carbon also likely wasn't stable. The substance was detected in a region of the moon called “Tara Regio,” where the surface has been disrupted, exposing access to the icy ocean underneath. 

“Previous observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show evidence for ocean-derived salt in Tara Regio,” Cornell University astronomer Samantha