Oxygen production from dissociation of Europa's water-ice surface

Jupiter's moon Europa has a predominantly water-ice surface that is modified by exposure to its space environment. Charged particles break molecular bonds in surface ice, thus dissociating the water to ultimately produce H₂ and O₂, which provides a potential oxygenation mechanism for Europa's subsurface ocean. These species are understood to form Europa's primary atmospheric constituents. Although remote observations provide important global constraints on Europa's atmosphere, the molecular O₂ abundance has been inferred from atomic O emissions. Europa's atmospheric composition had never been directly sampled and model-derived oxygen production estimates ranged over several orders of magnitude. Here, we report direct observations of H₂⁺ and O₂⁺ pickup ions from the dissociation of Europa's water-ice surface and confirm these species are primary atmospheric constituents. In contrast to expectations, we find the H₂ neutral atmosphere is dominated by a non-thermal, escaping population. We find 12 ± 6 kg s^-1 (2.2 ± 1.2 × 10²⁶ s^-1) O₂ are produced within Europa's surface, less than previously thought, with a narrower range to support habitability in Europa's ocean. This process is found to be Europa's dominant exogenic surface erosion mechanism over meteoroid bombardment.