The interior of Jupiter's moon Europa is encapsulated under a crust of ice and has been kept warm over billions of years. The warmer temperature is due to gravitational tidal forces that flex the moon's interior, keeping it warm and creating the potential for geysers on Europa's surface.
<p>The Hubble Space Telescope has observed possible geyser plumes in 2014 and 2016 in the same location. These observations bolster evidence that the plumes are a real phenomenon, flaring up intermittently in the same region on the moon. The 2016 plume rises 62 miles (99.7 km) above the surface, while the 2014 plume is estimated to rise about 30 miles (48.3 km) high.
</p><p>The location of the plumes corresponds to the position of an unusually warm spot on the moon's icy crust, as measured in the late 1990s by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. 
</p><p>For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2017-17
</p><p>Science Credit: NASA, ESA, and W. Sparks (STScI); 
</p>
Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Sparks (STScI), and the USGS Astrogeology Science Center
NASA Hubble
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