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" NASA announced today that researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope were able to detect evidence of liquid plumes erupting 125 miles above the surface of Jupiter&amp;#039;s moon Europa. It is widely assumed that Europa, along with Saturn&amp;#039;s moon Enceladus, contains a massive subsurface ocean below some 10 or more kilometers of ice. (The Cassini spacecraft first discovered liquid geysers on Enceladus in 2005). If there are plumes on Europa, it could be possible to fly a spacecraft through the water vapor to study the ocean and search for any organic material.         The Europa observations were made using ultraviolet observations from Hubble during a transit of Europa across the face of Jupiter. With the bright backdrop of Jupiter, Hubble was just able to detect what appear to be plumes of liquid water erupting from the moon&amp;#039;s surface. Researchers warn, however, that the observations were made at the limits of Hubble&amp;#039;s capabilities, so confirming that geysers do in fact exist on Europa will require future observations. &amp;quot;We do not claim to have proven the existence of plumes, but rather to have provided evidence that such plumes could exist,&amp;quot; said William Sparks, an astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, during the NASA announcement. Future infrared observations from the James Webb Telescope, slated for launch in October 2018, could help confirm the water vapor plumes spotted by Hubble.  The Juno spacecraft recently arrive at Jupiter, but that spacecraft will try to discover how Jupiter formed rather than study the Jovian moons (it won&amp;#039;t get anywhere near Europa). However, the new evidence of plumes might help spur a new mission to launch a spacecraft specifically targeting Europa\u2014a mission proposal that already has significant support within some circles of NASA.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a23046/water-plumes-discovered-on-europa/>