Potential For Shallow Liquid Water On Jupiter's Moon Europa, Study Suggests (independent.co.uk) 36
Shallow liquid water may be present on Jupiter's moon Europa, data based on the Greenland ice sheet suggests. The Independent reports: Europa is a prime candidate for life in the Solar System, and its deep saltwater ocean has captivated scientists for decades. The giant planet's moon has been visited by the Voyager and Galileo spacecrafts, and data collected on these missions, together with modeling, indicates the potential presence of a liquid water ocean beneath a 20-30km thick ice shell. While the thickness of the icy shell makes sampling it a daunting prospect, increasing evidence reveals the ice shell may be less of a barrier and more of a dynamic system -- and potentially good enough to support life in its own right.
Observations that captured the formation of a double ridge feature in Greenland suggest the ice shell of Europa may have an abundance of water pockets beneath similar features that are common on the surface. Study senior author Dustin Schroeder, an associate professor of geophysics at Stanford University's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), said: "Because it's closer to the surface, where you get interesting chemicals from space, other moons and the volcanoes of Io, there's a possibility that life has a shot if there are pockets of water in the shell. If the mechanism we see in Greenland is how these things happen on Europa, it suggests there's water everywhere."
Double ridges on Europa appear as dramatic gashes across the moon's icy surface, with crests reaching nearly 1,000 feet. Study author Riley Culberg, a PhD student in electrical engineering at Stanford, said: "In Greenland, this double ridge formed in a place where water from surface lakes and streams frequently drains into the near-surface and refreezes. One way that similar shallow water pockets could form on Europa might be through water from the subsurface ocean being forced up into the ice shell through fractures -- and that would suggest there could be a reasonable amount of exchange happening inside of the ice shell." The researchers describe their findings in the journal Nature Communications.
Observations that captured the formation of a double ridge feature in Greenland suggest the ice shell of Europa may have an abundance of water pockets beneath similar features that are common on the surface. Study senior author Dustin Schroeder, an associate professor of geophysics at Stanford University's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), said: "Because it's closer to the surface, where you get interesting chemicals from space, other moons and the volcanoes of Io, there's a possibility that life has a shot if there are pockets of water in the shell. If the mechanism we see in Greenland is how these things happen on Europa, it suggests there's water everywhere."
Double ridges on Europa appear as dramatic gashes across the moon's icy surface, with crests reaching nearly 1,000 feet. Study author Riley Culberg, a PhD student in electrical engineering at Stanford, said: "In Greenland, this double ridge formed in a place where water from surface lakes and streams frequently drains into the near-surface and refreezes. One way that similar shallow water pockets could form on Europa might be through water from the subsurface ocean being forced up into the ice shell through fractures -- and that would suggest there could be a reasonable amount of exchange happening inside of the ice shell." The researchers describe their findings in the journal Nature Communications.
Fish is back on the menu! (Score:3)
Obligatory: https://www.smbc-comics.com/co... [smbc-comics.com]
Well yeah....BUT... (Score:1)
If we go there, the Monoliths will make our sun go POOF!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm counting on Musk moving to Jupiter.
Re: (Score:3)
No no. While he himself *IS* an enormous gas bag, he has asserted that he wants to move to Mars, not Jupiter.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't Bezos the one who has problems with names?
Life requires more than just water (Score:2)
Life (as we know it) requires a large number of organic and inorganic substances plus a decent energy gradient. Does europa have either of these?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Life requires more than just water (Score:5, Informative)
Energy gradient, yes---
The gas giant it orbits exerts tremendous tidal forces, creating thermal heating. Thermal heating is sufficient to power sulfur cycle respiration based organisms.
Additionally, the moon is electrically coupled with the magnetosphere of Saturn, and is actively electrolyzed, via conduction though the E-Ring.
https://www.universetoday.com/... [universetoday.com]
Sulfur-cycle respiration is able to provide sufficient energy in such ecosystems to allow multicellular life. (On earth, you have deep sea vents, and tubeworms.)
It is not yet fully known if Enceladus contains sufficient sulfur and phosphorus, but scientists believe that there is, due to the rocky core of the moon.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-rel... [nasa.gov]
We DO know that it contains high levels of carbon dioxide, and hydrogen.
http://www.sci-news.com/space/... [sci-news.com]
We also know that the water ice jets of the moon release nitrogen and oxygen rich compounds.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/... [nasa.gov]
There does seem to be sufficient raw material and energy sources for life to exist on that moon.
Re:Life requires more than just water (Score:4, Interesting)
Although I am bleary eyed, and see this is for Europa, not Enceladus.
In which case--
The tidal forces exerted on europa are sufficient to cause plate tectonics like activity on its surface, driving many kilometer long striations and shear faults where the ice gets bent and flexed by the intense gravity of the nearby gas giant, Jupiter.
Further, the nearby volcanic moon of Io spews tremendous quantities of sulfur and hydrogen compounds into the Jovian system's magnetosphere, which is why it is so impressively large. (Conductive plasma inflated magnetosphere.)
This is most likely the major contributory source of the sulfur present in the ices on the surface of Europa.
https://www.nasa.gov/topics/so... [nasa.gov]
https://www.science.org/doi/10... [science.org]
This would provide the necessary energy gradient, as the very ice of the surface, would release suitable reactive sulfur species for sulfur cycle lifeforms.
NASA scientists believe that there is sufficient phosphofus and nitrogen in the moon's ocean and ice, for biological chemistry to take place.
https://europa.nasa.gov/why-eu... [nasa.gov]
Re: (Score:2)
There are bacteria that live in very energy poor environments, like in water pockets in ice, or cracks deep in rocks. The do live, but very very slowly.
Re: (Score:2)
Can you define "large" or "decent"? Even a few very simple organisms could occupy a broad environmental range, as we see for some organisms on Earth. And even with possible extinction events, if panspermia is correct and organisms can travel between stars and be seeded on other worlds, life might be restored even after complete environmental devastation.
Europa (Score:1)
All these worlds are ours :-)
Except this one :-(
Re: (Score:2)
Hmmm - never thought of it before, but that sure sounds like a "Tree of Knowledge" scenario...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, I knew where it came from. :)
Was thinking that "All these worlds are yours except for this one" sounds a lot like "Eat from any tree except for that one."
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not believing a word of it (as a scientist, you'd expect that of Clarke) doesn't mean that he didn't know it quite well. "Know thine enemy", as Sun Tzu wrote in a book of equally venerable lineage [wikipedia.org] (and considerably better morality).
Shallow pockets? (Score:2)
Previously, the claim was for a thick shell of ice over a deep ocean that could be miles deep in places, with the idea of placing a submarine on Europa.
Re: (Score:3)
I would say that it is better to interpret the finding this way:
Deep ice with deeper ocean, heated by tidal heating.
+
Subsurface pockets of water, produced through surface flexation (caused by tidal forces)
This would give TWO possible habitat types, for prospective life on the moon.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I would disagree. If you look at the individual processes within life, there is not a single one that differs from any other natural process. But what is life? Is there any specific thing you can point to that has the property of life? I'd argue no, that life is not a process or a physical thing but is the emergent property resulting from the interaction between natural processes.
I'd argue that we can also eliminate your contention for intent if we look at Lovelock's ideas and tweak them a little. If we inc
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
This tiny planet does indeed provide a limited spectrum of ecological possibilities. At no point, by constraining biological life to carbon and silicon (for there won't be silicon life on Earth) am I constraining life to any particular form. It may take any of the forms either of these allow, and there are many. Fred Hoyle's idea of life in gas clouds would be an example. Clearly not a form of life that exists on Earth, or any other planetary body, but a perfectly valid solution to the above constraint. Car
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Ok, that makes perfect sense. Thanks for that!
Re: (Score:2)
There's a problem with that : the power generated by a set amount of time-varying gravitational stress varies with the stiffness of the material (planet body) being being flexed. Really stiff materials (eg, a cold crystallised mantle) don't move much and generate low power. Really low stiffness materials (e.g. melted water-ice) move easily with little resistance and generate low power. Peak power generation is achieved at an intermediate degree of crustal
All these worlds are yours (Score:2)
except for Europa. Attempt no landing there.
Europan ocean cusine (Score:2)
Drilling technology (Score:2)
Come to think of it, flight-testing a spool of power+data cable that exceeds 20-30km would be a good trick to do first.
"What? The audience thinks that they'll be able to do it with WiFi? Through water-ice? With even a slight trace of brine in the distant 5km of the ice?" Yeah, call me when you've proven that to wo