New type of salty ice may exist on extraterrestrial ocean moons
The mysterious red streaks crisscrossing the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa may be the result of a newly discovered kind of salty ice.
Europa has long intrigued scientists because the moon has a subsurface ocean beneath a thick shell of ice. Plumes of water have been known to erupt from cracks in the ice shell, releasing the contents of the moon’s alien ocean into space.
Ocean worlds like Europa are the best bet for finding evidence of life outside of Earth, according to scientists.
The chemical signature of Europa’s surface red streaks, thought to be a frozen mix of water and salts, seemed unusual because it didn’t match any known substance on Earth.
Scientists determined in 2019 that the yellow portions of E