Researchers at the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) in Spain have used laboratory experiments to show that water, salts and gases dissolved in Europa’s ocean could rise to the surface to create geological features. The study might help explain how reddish materials at the surface are formed.

Images of Europa from missions like Galileo and Voyager revealed red-tinged materials associated with fractures in the moon’s icy surface. Astrobiologists have long wondered if these reddish marks are evidence that materials can be transported between Europa’s subsurface ocean and the surface.

Understanding processes that shape Europa’s crust, and how surface materials mix with the ice-covered ocean, is important in understanding life’s potential on this dynamic Jovian moon.

The Centro de Astrobiología is an Associate Partner of the NASA Astrobiology Institute.