Life-Bearing Lake Possible On Icy Jupiter Moon

astroengine writes "New research shows the jumbled ice blocks crowning the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa are signs of large liquid lakes below, a key finding in the search for places where life might exist beyond Earth. Drawing from studies of underground volcanoes in Iceland and Antarctica, scientists ran computer models to see if the chaotic formations on Europa's surface could be explained by the same geologic processes seen on Earth. It turns out that not only could this be further evidence for a sub-surface ocean, but also a mechanism that mixes ice and water, circulating nutrients and energy to get from the frozen surface to the ocean below."

send a probe!

[k6mfw]

A panel discussion at one of the SETI presentations, one of them said, "Go where the water is." and there's a lot more water on Europa than Mars. Though the ice is thick and radiation is intense, then there is streaming the data back to the surface from the robot submarine through all that water. But just imagine... direct observation of life forms. Most likely microbes, it would be exciting to see lots of fishes. Imagine all the posts on slashdot, those wanting to name the first fish, marine biologists having to constantly correct people's statements, on going jokes of "All These Worlds..." from the movie (incidently remember also in the movie 2010 is where the Chinese made a mad dash to this area before the Americans and Russians).