A new look at old data is giving scientists a fresh reason to view Europa, a moon of Jupiter, as a leading candidate in the search for life beyond Earth, with evidence of water plumes shooting into space.
A bend in Europa's magnetic field observed by NASA's Galileo spacecraft during a 1997 flyby appears to have been caused by a geyser gushing through its frozen crust from a subsurface ocean, researchers who re-examined the Galileo data reported Monday.
Galileo was passing some 124 miles (200 kilometers) above Europa's surface when it apparently flew through the plume.