[RELEASE]
Data from a NASA planetary mission have provided scientists evidence of what appears to be a body of liquid water, equal in volume to the North American Great Lakes, beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa.
The data suggest there is significant exchange between Europa's icy shell and the ocean beneath. This information could bolster arguments that Europa's global subsurface ocean represents a potential habitat for life elsewhere in our solar system. The findings are published in the scientific journal Nature.
"The data opens up some compelling possibilities," said Mary Voytek, director of NASA's Astrobiology Program at agency headquarters in Washington. "However, scientists worldwide will want to take a close look at this analysis and review the data before we can fully appreciate the implication of these results."
NASA's Galileo spacecraft, launched by the space shuttle Atlantis in 1989 to Jupiter, produced numerous discoveries and provided scientists decades of data to analyze. Galileo studied Jupiter, which is the most massive planet in the solar system, and some of its many moons.
[IMG]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/604306main_mag_cover_226.jpg[/IMG]
[I]Europa's "Great Lake." Scientists speculate many more exist throughout the shallow regions of the moon's icy shell. Image Credit: Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel FX/Univ. of Texas at Austin.[/I]
[IMG]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/604289main_cover_3_Thera_226.jpg[/IMG]
[I]Thera Macula (false color) is a region of likely active chaos production above a large liquid water lake in the icy shell of Europa. Color indicates topographic heights relative to background terrain. Purples and reds indicate the highest terrain. Image Credit: Paul Schenk/NASA.[/I]
[IMG]http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/604233main_europa_galileo_226.jpg[/IMG]
[I]Europa, as viewed from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft. Visible are plains of bright ice, cracks that run to the horizon, and dark patches that likely contain both ice and dirt. Image Credit: NASA[/I]
One of the most significant discoveries was the inference of a global salt water ocean below the surface of Europa. This ocean is deep enough to cover the whole surface of Europa and contains more liquid water than all of Earth's oceans combined. However, being far from the sun, the ocean surface is completely frozen. Most scientists think this ice crust is tens of miles thick.
"One opinion in the scientific community has been if the ice shell is thick, that's bad for biology. That might mean the surface isn't communicating with the underlying ocean," said Britney Schmidt, lead author of the paper and postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin. "Now, we see evidence that it's a thick ice shell that can mix vigorously and new evidence for giant shallow lakes. That could make Europa and its ocean more habitable."
Schmidt and her team focused on Galileo images of two roughly circular, bumpy features on Europa's surface called chaos terrains. Based on similar processes seen on Earth -- on ice shelves and under glaciers overlaying volcanoes -- they developed a four-step model to explain how the features form. The model resolves several conflicting observations. Some seemed to suggest the ice shell is thick. Others suggest it is thin.
This recent analysis shows the chaos features on Europa's surface may be formed by mechanisms that involve significant exchange between the icy shell and the underlying lake. This provides a mechanism or model for transferring nutrients and energy between the surface and the vast global ocean already inferred to exist below the thick ice shell. This is thought to increase the potential for life there.
The study authors have good reason to believe their model is correct, based on observations of Europa from Galileo and of Earth. Still, because the inferred lakes are several miles below the surface, the only true confirmation of their presence would come from a future spacecraft mission designed to probe the ice shell. Such a mission was rated as the second highest priority flagship mission by the National Research Council's recent Planetary Science Decadal Survey and is being studied by NASA.
"This new understanding of processes on Europa would not have been possible without the foundation of the last 20 years of observations over Earth's ice sheets and floating ice shelves," said Don Blankenship, a co-author and senior research scientist at the Institute for Geophysics, where he leads airborne radar studies of the planet's ice sheets.
Galileo was the first spacecraft to directly measure Jupiter's atmosphere with a probe and conduct long-term observations of the Jovian system. The probe was the first to fly by an asteroid and discover the moon of an asteroid. NASA extended the mission three times to take advantage of Galileo's unique science capabilities, and it was put on a collision course into Jupiter's atmosphere in September 2003 to eliminate any chance of impacting Europa.
The Galileo mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
For images and a video animation of the findings, visit the University of Texas at Austin.
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Source: [url]http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/europa_20111116.html[/url]
Read title as Europe...
Wow, a dynamic system is absolutely fantastic.
[editline]17th November 2011[/editline]
For prospects of life that is
Well no shit, I thought people knew about this decades ago.
[img]http://images.wikia.com/athfwiki/images/f/f2/Drweird280.jpg[/img]
[b]I CLAIMED IT FIRST, DAMNIT![/b]
Oh god I hope there's life on Europa. I don't care if it's just a little blob wiggling around I just want [i]something.[/i]
[QUOTE=Kaarristu;33308167][IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/ArthurCClarke_2010OdysseyTwo.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
I just read that entire series over the last two weeks. Thought of it when I saw the title.
[editline]16th November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Canuhearmenow;33308197]Well no shit, I thought people knew about this decades ago.[/QUOTE]
It's a bad title. The real thing this means is that there are lakes that intermix with the massive global ocean, allowing for more complex situations to occur that may spark life.
[QUOTE=ASmellyOgre;33308237]I just read that entire series over the last two weeks. Thought of it when I saw the title.
[/QUOTE]
I just got done reading that book about 2 weeks ago, ha.
[QUOTE=Kaarristu;33308167][IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/ArthurCClarke_2010OdysseyTwo.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]Coincidentally I just finished reading this yesterday :v:
Send a god damn probe, smash it through the ice, and see what's in there
[QUOTE=Zeke129;33308576]Send a god damn probe, smash it through the ice, and see what's in there[/QUOTE]
Squids will be our first contact.
I wonder what would be the effects on creationism if we found life.
Next should be send a bigger probe with drilling equipment, or something to melt a portion of the ice.
A probe? Why send a probe? To send another probe? And so on and on ad infinitum like we're doing with Mars, sending increasingly large robots to probe rocks?
If the only thing we're going to do with space is gather data then we might as well roll in our mud while we wait for the next K-T event.
[Media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLTRDH2YFqc&feature=related[/Media]
[I]I warned you about making landings on Europa, bro! I told you![/I]
[QUOTE=iwork3daysaweek;33308645]I wonder what would be the effects on creationism if we found life.[/QUOTE]
Not much really. Maybe God put those there and didn't tell us. He didn't tell us about some of the other planets that exist in the solar system anyway.
All I can think of is [url=http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/europa.htm]A Spy In Europa.[/url]
[QUOTE=iwork3daysaweek;33308645]I wonder what would be the effects on creationism if we found life.[/QUOTE]
It would surely compromise their homo-centric view of the universe.
Either that or they would say that God gave us a lot of gifts to fuck over and run into the ground - Imminent Planetary Domain essentially - anything elsewhere would be what God made for us to use and abuse, not to treat as equals, respect, or even study.
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;33308786]A probe? Why send a probe? To send another probe? And so on and on ad infinitum like we're doing with Mars, sending increasingly large robots to probe rocks?
If the only thing we're going to do with space is gather data then we might as well roll in our mud while we wait for the next K-T event.[/QUOTE]
I think there needs to be some kind of drilling probe though. Something that can get through the ice and send a sub down. Sending a crew to do the job would be so much more expensive and dangerous. Let's confirm what's there before we send people.
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;33308612]Squids will be our first contact.[/QUOTE]
Interplanetary calamari has always been my dream.
[QUOTE=Eudoxia;33308786]A probe? Why send a probe? To send another probe? And so on and on ad infinitum like we're doing with Mars, sending increasingly large robots to probe rocks?
If the only thing we're going to do with space is gather data then [B]we might as well roll in our mud[/B] while we wait for the next K-T event.[/QUOTE]
have you not watched politics?
pretty sure we've been doing that for a while now
[QUOTE=Zeke129;33308576]Send a god damn probe, smash it through the ice, and see what's in there[/QUOTE]
It's a mile thick, its problematic to drill with a probe,
SO SEND IN THE FUCKIN SPACE MINERS
[editline]16th November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=OvB;33309104]I think there needs to be some kind of drilling probe though. Something that can get through the ice and send a sub down. Sending a crew to do the job would be so much more expensive and dangerous. Let's confirm what's there before we send people.[/QUOTE]
Let us dream man, don't you want to mine for squids?
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;33309296]It's a mile thick, its problematic to drill with a probe,
[/QUOTE]
How much kinetic energy would be needed to accelerate a probe-rod to punch through the ice?
the real difficulty is getting the data from the probe [I]when it's inside the planet[/I]
I thought they said this years ago, is this just further proof?
[QUOTE=Zeke129;33308576]Send a god damn probe, smash it through the ice, and see what's in there[/QUOTE]
My favorite model for getting through the ice is also one of the most straightforward and mechanically simple: A radioactive drill.
All it does is generate heat and slowly melt its way through the ice. Eventually, hopefully, dropping into the ocean below. This would allow for extremely little weight to be spent on the drill portion and the most weight possible on the probe itself.
Not that a whole lot could be done once you actually break into the ocean. The probe would need to be tethered by a cable to a station on the surface if it wanted to send signals back. It is hard enough transmitting through water and damn near impossible to transmit through miles of ice.
So ultimately that tether would limit the depth that the probe could reach. Perhaps barring it from reaching any geologically active spots at the bottom of the ocean and finding any life that thrives on the heat generated.
It is one of those cases where it might just be easier to send people and then lob supplies at them until they become self sufficient. With the presence of unlimited amounts of water, they can produce (rocket) fuel, oxygen, and obviously consume the water.
I wonder how much it would cost to lob an unmanned supply cache to Europa.
[QUOTE=DesolateGrun;33309296] Let us dream man, don't you want to mine for squids?[/QUOTE]
I would [i]love[/i] to volunteer to go to Europa to see whats there. However, the ice is kilometers thick and as hard as granite in some places. Drilling through it would take months with a nuclear powered probe that has a bit that heats up enough to bore through. I often think about how we could do it, I know we can. I just feel like a human wouldn't have much to do in the first stages of exploration and might get in the way with the required life support systems. Not to mention the extreme cold and harsh conditions.
The good thing about these lakes it that it gives us an access point that's a lot closer than the subsurface ocean. We don't have to bore through 20+ kilometers of extremely hard ice. This saves energy and time. Wonderful find.
[editline]16th November 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=GunFox;33309707]My favorite model for getting through the ice is also one of the most straightforward and mechanically simple: A radioactive drill.
All it does is generate heat and slowly melt its way through the ice. Eventually, hopefully, dropping into the ocean below. This would allow for extremely little weight to be spent on the drill portion and the most weight possible on the probe itself.
Not that a whole lot could be done once you actually break into the ocean. The probe would need to be tethered by a cable to a station on the surface if it wanted to send signals back. It is hard enough transmitting through water and damn near impossible to transmit through miles of ice.
So ultimately that tether would limit the depth that the probe could reach. Perhaps barring it from reaching any geologically active spots at the bottom of the ocean and finding any life that thrives on the heat generated.
It is one of those cases where it might just be easier to send people and then lob supplies at them until they become self sufficient. With the presence of unlimited amounts of water, they can produce (rocket) fuel, oxygen, and obviously consume the water.
I wonder how much it would cost to lob an unmanned supply cache to Europa.[/QUOTE]
That's my favorite idea too, though what I would do is have the drill stop right at the edge of the ocean. The bit would carry an ROV and a 20 mile tether spool. The bit itself would have a tether going up to the surface with it's own tether where the deployed drilling rig would be to communicate with earth.
[editline]16th November 2011[/editline]
Or, to remove the extreme size and weight of a 20 mile tether, you could have the ROV be autonomous and have it find the ocean floor then report back to the drill for further instructions.
[QUOTE=OvB;33309722]
Or, to remove the extreme size and weight of a 20 mile tether, you could have the ROV be autonomous and have it find the ocean floor then report back to the drill for further instructions.[/QUOTE]
I had considered that, but can you imagine the programming for that? Solid object avoidance aside, it could run into really weird stuff like pockets of stuff that is liquid, but not water, which in turn fucks up the density and could completely confuse the system's navigation (I am just pulling this out of my ass. The universe is a strange place however, so expecting the unexpected is always well advised). With a tether, you always know the way back, and have human beings on the other side that can compensate for unusual eventualities.
The system would still need to be almost entirely autonomous though, I suppose. The time delay is just so huge at that distance. Issuing the order to move forward a few meters and then waiting for an hour just to issue the same order would be maddening.
With NASA's luck though, they would get into the ocean and find giant magnetic deposits slowly drifting around at a set depth away from a copper based core that generates a massive electromagnetic field that ruins all electronics :P
[QUOTE=GunFox;33309923]I had considered that, but can you imagine the programming for that? Solid object avoidance aside, it could run into really weird stuff like pockets of stuff that is liquid, but not water, which in turn fucks up the density and could completely confuse the system's navigation (I am just pulling this out of my ass. The universe is a strange place however, so expecting the unexpected is always well advised). With a tether, you always know the way back, and have human beings on the other side that can compensate for unusual eventualities.
The system would still need to be almost entirely autonomous though, I suppose. The time delay is just so huge at that distance. Issuing the order to move forward a few meters and then waiting for an hour just to issue the same order would be maddening.
With NASA's luck though, they would get into the ocean and find giant magnetic deposits slowly drifting around at a set depth away from a copper based core that generates a massive electromagnetic field that ruins all electronics :P[/QUOTE]
The US Navy has had a big interest in autonomous ROV's for mine stuff so I'm willing to bet by the time were ready to go to Europa we'll have it refined enough that it shouldn't be a complete disaster.
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