Researchers have discovered evidence of icy plate tectonics on Jupiter's moon Europa, meaning that the celestial body could support life.
The team from the University of Idaho found clear evidence that Europa's icy crust was expanding, but they couldn't figure out how the crust was being destroyed to make way for the new crust.
Previously, scientists believed that Earth was the only world that possessed this type of surface.
"From a purely science or geological perspective, this is incredible," study lead author Simon Kattenhorn of the University of Idaho said to Space.com. "Earth may not be alone. There may be another body out there that has plate tectonics. And not only that, it's ice!"
Plate tectonics is the scientific theory that Earth's outer layer is made up of plates or blocks that move. This accounts for why mountain and volcanoes form and earthquakes happen, according to a NASA news release.
Kattenhorn and co-author Louise Prokter, of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, analyzed photos of Europa taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 until 2003.
They were able to reconstruct the images, and were surprised to find that a location more than 12,000 square miles was missing.
Their findings could mean that this missing piece moved under a second surface plate, a scenario that often takes place on Earth.
"Europa may be more Earth-like than we imagined, if it has a global plate tectonic system," Kattenhorn said in a NASA news release. "Not only does this discovery make it one of the most geologically interesting bodies in the solar system, it also implies two-way communication between the exterior and interior - a way to move material from the surface into the ocean - a process which has significant implications for Europa's potential as a habitable world.
The team's results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience. If they are correct, a lot of planetary textbooks will have to be re-written.
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