Hubble Directly Images Possible Plumes on Europa

Photo Composite of Suspected Water Plumes on Europa

This composite image shows suspected plumes of water vapor erupting at the 7 o'clock position off the limb of Jupiter's moon Europa. The plumes, photographed by NASA's Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, were seen in silhouette as the moon passed in front of Jupiter....

Photo Composite of Suspected Water Plumes on Europa (Annotated)

This composite image includes data from Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, which shows suspected plumes of water vapor erupting at the 7 o'clock position off the limb of Jupiter's moon Europa. The image of Europa, superimposed on the Hubble data, is assembled from...

Artist's View of Plumes on Europa

This is an artist's concept of the moon Europa, at right, with water-ice plumes erupting from its lower left limb at the 7 o'clock position. In the background, to the left, is Jupiter's orange, volcanic moon Io, and to the left of Io is Jupiter. Io's shadow appears in the center...

Europa Transiting Geometry

This diagram shows how the plumes on Europa are seen in silhouette as the moon moves across the face of Jupiter. Europa makes a complete orbit of Jupiter in just 3.5 Earth days.

Europa Transiting Jupiter

This video is a time-lapse sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images of the moon Europa as it moved across the face of Jupiter over the course of 19 minutes. Europa is at the bottom center on Jupiter's disk, with the Great Red Spot to the left and Europa's shadow to its right....

Animation of Plumes on Europa

This is an artist's concept of the moon Europa, at right, with water-ice plumes erupting from its limb at the 7 o'clock position. In the background is Jupiter's orange, volcanic moon Io. Io's shadow appears in the center of Jupiter's face, left.