Europa’s Mysterious Glow
Updated at 6:53 p.m. on November 10, 2020.
One of Jupiter’s moons might be glowing in the dark.
At first glance, this is perhaps unsurprising. Our own moon glows in the dark, reflecting the light of the sun. Jupiter is far away from here, but our star still illuminates the planet and its many moons, including the moon Europa.
But Europa is different from the others. According to new research, Europa might glow even on its night side, producing an ethereal glimmer without the help of the sun.
The glow arises from the special nature of Europa’s cosmic than the radiation near Earth. The high-energy particles constantly bombard Europa, a world slightly smaller than our moon, with a wispy atmosphere. And when those particles strike the moon’s ice-covered surface, a quirk of chemistry could make it glow in the dark.
