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Space Mars Technology

Astronomers Detect Water Vapor Around Jupiter's Moon Europa (wired.com) 30

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
In the search for life in our solar system, Mars tends to steal the spotlight. But in recent years Jupiter's fourth largest moon, Europa, has emerged as a promising extraterrestrial nursery. Planetary scientists have long suspected Europa may harbor a vast liquid water ocean beneath its thick, icy crust. If Europa's ocean also has a source of energy -- think hydrothermal vents -- and a few choice chemical elements, there's a decent chance it could support basic lifeforms. From a report: This theory makes a lot of assumptions, but on Monday it received one of its biggest boosts yet. An international team of astronomers announced they directly detected water vapor in Europa's atmosphere for the first time. As detailed in a paper published in Nature Astronomy, this method of detection is strong evidence that liquid water exists beneath the surface of Europa. "This doesn't necessarily mean the water vapor is coming from an ocean," says NASA planetary scientist Lucas Paganini. "But it does seem like this detection is connected to liquid water under the surface." A lot of what we know about Europa was gleaned from data collected by the Galileo spacecraft on its tour of Jupiter in the late '90s. One of the most remarkable findings from that mission was that something was messing with Jupiter's magnetic field. Based on this finding, planetary scientists hypothesized Europa might be home to an electrically conductive fluid, like salt water, that was causing the magnetic disturbances.
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Astronomers Detect Water Vapor Around Jupiter's Moon Europa More

Astronomers Detect Water Vapor Around Jupiter's Moon Europa

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  • can't we just give her privacy?

  • I had the impression planet that far from the sun would be all well bellow 0 Celcius.
    • It could have thermal vents due to tectonic activity from Jupiter's gravity.

      • Some might say squishy ball is squished being next to bigger gassy ball.

        Tidal forces by another name but squishy is funner word.

    • Re:Temperature? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Friday November 22, 2019 @03:21PM (#59444038) Journal

      On the surface, certainly. But the Jovian system has a helluva lot of energy. Jupiter generates more energy than it receives from the sun, and the electromagnetic flux and gravitational tidal between the Jovian satellites and Jupiter are enormous. Where a moon has an atmosphere or where there is a thermal trap (like a thick icy crust), the radiation is trapped, and tidal forces churn the interiors. Hence, Io is a nightmarish volcanic world, and Europa, beneath the ice crust, has a vast ocean of liquid water. It's likely, like Io, that Europa is very geologically active, meaning a strong likelihood of oceanic vents not unlike in Earth's ocean.

      What we have is a large body of evidence demonstrating a dynamic hydrological system on Europa, with a massive amount of energy. That's why it is one of the best places to look for life elsewhere in the solar system. The water vapor means that we can send probes to "taste" the water both around Europa and on its surface for signs of biological activity. While no organism can survive the intensely hostile environment of Europa's surface or in the space around it, the presence of complex organic compounds, perhaps even of dead organisms, is an area of exploration that scientists desperately want to get to.

      • You don't even necessarily need Jupiter's tidal energy. It's possible that even Pluto [earthsky.org] has a liquid water ocean inside it. Subsurface oceans probably contain the vast majority of life in the universe, and we're an anomaly for living on the surface.

        • That's an interesting idea. I wonder if an oceanic species could develop metallurgy. Certainly space travel would be even harder than it is for air breathers like us.

    • The tidal stress caused by Jupiter heats up the moon's interior. For a more extreme example, check out Io that orbits even closer.

  • A magnetic...anomaly you say? If life is identified on Europa it absolutely *has* to be named after Arthur C. Clarke

  • Attempt no landings there.

  • ... when you find Chlorophyll. Or perhaps a large rectangular object, 1 x 4 x 9 in dimensions... then we'll have something to talk about.

  • Damm... frick's scientists found my stash. Now where am I going to hide it so the dumb-ass humans don't go blowing it like Scarface?

  • So Europa Report was more a documentary rather than a sci-fi movie?

  • I smell something fishy.

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