Quote:

To determine which mineral or minerals, McCord and associates compared the Europa non-ice spectra to a large database of spectra compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey. This search ruled out clay minerals, which some scientists had hypothesized to be present on Europa, because clay minerals have extra dips in their spectra, especially between 2.2 and 2.4 micrometers, features not seen in the Europa spectra (see diagram below). The best matches were obtained for hydrated salts, including sulfates, carbonates, and borates. The investigators eliminated borates because boron has a very low abundance in planetary materials. The best bets seem to be natron (Na2CO3(10H2O), epsomite (MgSO4(7H2O), and hexahydrite (MgSO4(6H2O), although there are a few small differences between them and the Europa spectra.

Quote:

The surface composition of Europa is of special interest due to the information it might provide regarding the presence of a subsurface ocean. One source of this information is the infrared reflectance spectrum. Certain surface regions of Europa exhibit distorted H2O vibrational overtone bands in the 1.5 and 2.0 μm region, as measured by the Galileo mission Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS). These bands are clearly the result of highly concentrated solvated contaminants. However, two interpretations of their identity have been presented. One emphasizes hydrated salt minerals and the other sulfuric acid, although each does not specifically rule out some of the other. It has been pointed out that accurate chemical identification of the surface composition must depend on integrating spectral data with geochemical models, and information on the tenuous atmosphere sputtered from the surface. It is also extremely important to apply detailed chemistry when interpreting the spectral data, including knowledge of mineral dissolution chemistry and the subsequent optical signatures of ion solvation in low-temperature ice. We present studies of flash frozen acid and salt mixtures as Europa surface analogs and demonstrate that solvated protons, metal cations and inorganic anions all influence the spectra and must all, collectively, be considered when assigning Europa spectral features. These laboratory data show best correlation with NIMS Europa spectra for multi-component mixtures of sodium and magnesium bearing sulfate salts mixed with sulfuric acid. The data provide a concentration upper bound of 50-mol% for MgSO4 and 40-mol% for Na2SO4. This newly reported higher sodium and proton content is consistent with low-temperature aqueous differentiation and hydrothermal processing of carbonaceous chondrite-forming materials during the formation and early evolution of Europa.