Suppose we drilled a 1 ft (30 cm) diameter hole through Europa's ice crust. As Europa doesn't have an atmosphere, the water would obviously either sublime (turn to vapor) or instantly freeze once a hole is drilled through, but how exactly would that be going on?
In the case of sublimation, the ocean won't sublime all at once, right? How fast would the sublimation be going on, how large of a volume of water would turn to vapor in a realistic time frame, or so?
In case of freezing, what would it look like if it froze instantly? Even before it froze, it would have to be liquid while exposed to the vacuum of space once the hole is drilled, which in turn would be impossible, or wouldn't it?
