Juice Mission Blasts Off To Jupiter To Look for Signs of Life (theguardian.com) 14
The European Space Agency's Juice probe has blasted off on a landmark mission to Jupiter's moons, rising on a plume of white from its launchpad in Kourou, French Guiana, on the north-eastern shoulder of South America. From a report: The mission, which was delayed for 24 hours after lightning threatened to strike on Thursday, intends to uncover the secrets of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, its enormous polar auroras, and how its mighty magnetic field shapes conditions on the gas giant's nearby moons. It is the moons themselves that are the main attraction. Despite the frigid conditions that prevail, nearly half a billion miles from the sun, Juice will visit three of Jupiter's moons -- Europa, Callisto and Ganymede -- which harbour deep liquid water oceans beneath their icy surfaces.
The discovery of sub-surface saltwater oceans on Jupiter's moons has pushed them high up the list of solar system venues to explore for signs of life and habitability. If hydrothermal vents -- found on ocean floors all over Earth -- exist on the Jovian moons, they may provide enough warmth for life to thrive in the darkness. "I'm so thrilled to see Juice finally on its way," said Prof Andrew Coates, from the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who helped build two instruments on Juice called Pep and Janus. "This is an excellent mission to look at habitability of Jupiter's moons."
The discovery of sub-surface saltwater oceans on Jupiter's moons has pushed them high up the list of solar system venues to explore for signs of life and habitability. If hydrothermal vents -- found on ocean floors all over Earth -- exist on the Jovian moons, they may provide enough warmth for life to thrive in the darkness. "I'm so thrilled to see Juice finally on its way," said Prof Andrew Coates, from the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who helped build two instruments on Juice called Pep and Janus. "This is an excellent mission to look at habitability of Jupiter's moons."
Obligatory... (Score:1, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
"You commie woke aliens, we'll go where we damned please!"
Jumping The Gun (Score:1)
We are not really ready to tear off across the solar system just quite yet. Seems we may have some engineering to work on yet since we don't even have a moon base yet.
Would also be nice to stabilize the economy and get our society a little more pleasant first. Just sayin'.
Re: Jumping The Gun (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's not the point - we're looking for life that evolved seperate to life on Earth. Then we can enslave it. Think of the savings when we outsource our customer service to Ganymede!
I don't think folks would tolerate the audible delay in that VOIP call to Ganymede and more than they would tolerate the clippiness of a VOIP call to India or Manila.
Re: (Score:1)
we'll never get off this rock in any meaningful fashion babysitting the lowest common denominator -- it's honestly a black hole.
Besides one of the relief valves for overpopulation has always been outward expansion; kind of running out space for that at present.
Re:Jumping The Gun (Score:4, Insightful)
We are not really ready to tear off across the solar system just quite yet. Seems we may have some engineering to work on yet since we don't even have a moon base yet.
Would also be nice to stabilize the economy and get our society a little more pleasant first. Just sayin'.
- 1910s - may we get some money to understand gravity better? - It's a great idea, but "Would also be nice to stabilize the economy and get our society a little more pleasant first." - bye, bye GPS and multi billion $ industry and jobs associated with it
- 1910s - may we get some money to understand subatomic physics? - It's a great idea, but "Would also be nice to stabilize the economy and get our society a little more pleasant first." - bye, bye computers, modern electronics and e.g. magnetoresonans imaging, multi billion $ industry associated with it and countless new jobs
- 1850s - may we get some money to study this new phenomenon of magnetism and currents? - - It's a great idea, but "Would also be nice to stabilize the economy and get our society a little more pleasant first." - bye, bye electricity, multi billion $ industry associated with it and countless new jobs
...
- ca. 300,000 BCE - Maybe we can go to see what's behind this big mountain on the horizon? - It's a great idea, but "Would also be nice to stabilize the economy and get our society a little more pleasant first." - bye, bye humanity as the next local natural disaster wiped us out
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With that kind of attitude we wouldn't have antibiotics, computers, internet, television, radio, electricity, or practically any other facet of modern life.
Discovery "out there" begets technology that can be used to "get our society a little more pleasant" here.
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Never-ending football yet to come (Score:2)
In 15,753 years, JUICE will be watching!
https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football [sbnation.com]