How is the detection done? Is it some chemical signature? A graphical visual image? Something else? Could it be that the methodology used may be too presumptuous on the nature of the phenomena? Could it be that the phenomena is something else entirely and has been misclassified? What is the methodology of identification and classification of such phenomena and how is that confidence expressed?
Europa is tidally locked to Jupiter meaning one side of Europa is always facing Jupiter (like our Moon). It also orbits in a nearly circular orbit however this is not to be confused with perfectly circular orbit: Europa will have perizene and apozene points (locations in which Europa is closest and farthest to Jupiter respectively)
That being said we have made calculations based upon the tidal forces on Europa by Jupiter and the plumes seem to appear when Europa is at it's apozene location and disappear at its perizene location.
I don't think it said in the article where Europa is. It could simply be nearing its perizene and the geysers go away due to the tidal model.
Yep! My friend's capstone team was named "Perigalacticon" I thought it was some SciFi thing but I later learned it meant "closest approach to the center of the Galaxy"
What this means is that we will need to plan for a lander on Europa. This will be very tricky to land due to a lack of atmosphere and the need to avoid contamination.
