WATER MAY FLOW ON JOVIAN MOON.

Byline: Keith Stone Daily News Staff Writer

The quest for life amid the stars took another turn Tuesday as scientists displayed new images from NASA's mission to Jupiter that bolster evidence of liquid water on the Jovian moon Europa.

The spacecraft Galileo also beamed back dramatic photos of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, revealing for the first time a series of raining thunderstorms that scientists say may be fueling this centuries-old, Earth-size hurricane.

But it was speculation about life on the ice-gripped moon Europa that generated the most excitement during a news conference Tuesday at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Just last week the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that a meteorite from Mars might contain fossilized Martian bacteria.

None of the scientists Tuesday said they expect that Jupiter is a host for even the most primitive of life forms, although as the largest planet in the solar system it meets a key requirement: It contains water.

``What you don't have is peace and quiet. This is a churning, convecting atmosphere,'' said Andrew Ingersoll, a California Institute of Technology scientist who is studying the Galileo images.

Europa is another story.

As wide as the United States, this moon of Jupiter could be warm and wet enough to support life, said Ronald Greeley, a geologist from Arizona State University.

As Galileo swung within 95,700 miles of Europa, its high resolution camera brought into sharper focus a virtual interstate highway system of trenches, some 5 miles wide, that line the planet's crust, Greeley said.

``This shows the ice crust has been, or still is, lubricated from below by warm ice or maybe even liquid water,'' Greeley said.

The theory is that as Europa strains against the gravitational pull of Jupiter, large ice plates shear off and squeeze liquid water or slush to the surface in geysers, Greeley said.

It is in those areas that scientists want to look more closely, Greeley said, because ``these are places that would be environmentally favorable for life.''

Scientists hope that when Galileo swings within 370 miles of Europa in December its cameras will detect changes in the crust, indicating the presence of water or slush.

``We have to be in the right spot at the right time,'' he said.

In another Galileo finding, the craft's cameras were in the perfect position to capture an erupting volcano on another Jovian moon, Io. Photographs show a cobalt-blue plume, 60 miles high, rising from the area known as Ra Patera.

Even more spectacular is that the eruption glows in the dark, likely a result of sulfur dioxide molecules being torn apart as they spew into the atmosphere, said Galileo project scientist Torrence V. Johnson.

Since earthlings last viewed the Jovian system 17 years ago through cameras on Voyagers 1 and 2, volcanoes have changed Ra Patera dramatically.

``An area the size of New Jersey has been resurfaced,'' said Alfred McEwen, a University of Arizona scientist who is studying Io.

New views of the Great Red Spot have done much to answer the overriding question: Why has this hurricane lasted so long, since before Galileo peered at it through his telescope in 1611?

Hurricanes on Earth lose energy, stop turning and eventually disappear, much as a spinning wheel succumbs to inertia. Scientists remain unsure what has driven Jupiter's storm.

On Tuesday, scientists said a special camera filter aboard Galileo detected several thunderstorms standing 30 miles above the Jovian clouds. And these thunderstorms, scientists said, could be providing at least some of the energy necessary to push the hurricane, with winds reaching 250 mph.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Scientists discuss Jupiter's Great Red Spot,pictured on the screen at left, at a conference Tuesday.

(2) Images recorded by the Galileo spacecraft show the Great Red Spot up close.

Associated Press