Europa may not vent water into space after all

Signs of plumes spotted more than a decade ago disappeared with more data

A brownish-gray moon crisscrossed with lines with the left half in shadow.

If Europa sprayed water into space, it could be helpful in the search for life in the icy moon's subsurface ocean. But signs of water plumes have vanished with more data.

MSSS, SwRI, JPL-Caltech/NASA; image processing by Björn Jónsson CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Signs of water plumes spewing from Jupiter’s icy moon Europa have vanished in a hydrogen haze.