NASA announces scientists are now closer to proving Europa has water vapour plumes
It is already known that the moon contains a subsurface ocean - which could be a component to supporting life
NASA has announced scientists believe they have found evidence of water vapour plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
It is already known that the moon contains a subsurface ocean - which could be a component to supporting life.
However, NASA tweeted earlier today to say new finding's from Jupiter's moon would be announced but added "spoiler alert: NOT aliens".
William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore said during the conference "for a long time" scientists have been wondering "if there is life beyond earth".
He added: "On earth life is found where there is energy, water, nutrients, so we have special interest in places that contains those conditions and Europa might be one of those places."
The belief that the moon holds a subsurface ocean would support the suggestion that life could theoretically be found - but NASA have made sure to ensure those listening in to the press conference on Monday at 7pm BST have realistic expectations.
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Ahead of the press conference, NASA said: "Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have imaged what may be water vapour plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
"This finding bolsters other Hubble observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high altitude water vapour plumes."
The plumes are estimated to rise about 125 miles before presumably raining material back onto Europa's surface.
The moon has a huge global ocean containing twice as much water as Earth's oceans, but it is protected by a layer of extremely cold and hard ice of unknown thickness.
So the findings of the plumes mean there could be an opportunity to gather samples from the ocean under the surface without having to land or drill through the ice.
Observations of this have been made since 2014 but have only been recorded now.
This was explained as due to the images being taken in a "time-tag mode" which needed careful analysis and checked.
Following the initial discovery two more transits were undertaken and the analysis of the date from those have only just begun.
During the conference Mr Sparks was keen to impress that NASA is not claiming to have proven the existence of plumes but contributed to the evidence of the existence of plumes.
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