Studying unusual processes of how ice accumulates below ice shelves here on Earth could hold lessons for the exploration and habitability of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Researchers studied two types of underwater snow found on Earth as an analogue for understanding how Europa’s shell thickens from below. Frazil ice forms in supercooled water columns and floats upwards to accrete onto the bottom of ice shelves, while ice grows directly from under the ice shelf. The researchers determined that ice formed by these processes retains just a fraction of the salt from the water from which it formed. Frazil ice retains just 0.1 per cent of the ocean’s salinity and could be common on Europa, suggesting t hat Europa’s ice shell could be orders of magnitude p urer than previous estimates.
“When we’re exploring Europa, we’re interested in the salinity and composition of the ocean because that’s o ne of the things that will govern its potential habitability o r even the type of life that might live there,” study lead a uthor Natalie Wolfenbarger of the University of Texas I nstitute for Geophysics, said.