23
May 2002
Lunar science: Europa on thick ice
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The icy shell on Europa arouses much interest because of suggestions that there may be life in the putative subsurface ocean. A new way of investigating the shells of Jupiter's icy satellites addresses questions previously the province of theory and models. Impact crater morphology determined from Voyager and Galileo images shows that Europa's icy shell is at least 19 km thick, which would exclude the possibility of easy exchange between the surface and any organic or biotic materials in a subsurface ocean. On the cover, crater morphology on Europa.
Thickness constraints on the icy shells of the galilean satellites from a comparison of crater shapes
PAUL M. SCHENK
Nature 417, 419–421 (23 May 2002)
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