As Many as Four Moons Around Uranus May Have Oceans Below the Surface (arstechnica.com) 43
An anonymous reader shares a report: In recent decades, NASA has sent large spacecraft -- Galileo and Cassini, respectively -- to fly around Jupiter and Venus to explore the dozens of moons that exist in those planetary systems. The spacecraft investigated all manner of intriguing moons, from little radiation-saturated hellholes to a world covered in volcanoes. But the most consistently interesting discovery made by these probes was that Jupiter and Venus are surrounded by small and large moons covered in ice, possessing large water oceans below, or both. This was exciting because where there is water in its liquid state, there is the possibility of life.
In response to these discoveries, NASA is planning to launch a mission to Europa, an ice-encrusted moon in the Jovian system, as early as 2024. Another mission may launch to Saturn's moon Titan a few years later, where there are oceans of liquid methane on the surface. And just last month, the European Space Agency launched a spacecraft, Juice, to explore several icy moons at Jupiter. Now, NASA may need to add the moons of Uranus to its exploration hit list. Besides being known for its funny name and its brilliant cyan shade, Uranus has at least 27 moons. And they're pretty intriguing, too. The space agency has only ever flown one spacecraft, Voyager 2, by the seventh planet in our Solar System. The Voyager spacecraft flew by Uranus a long time ago, in 1985. But in light of the discoveries made by the Cassini, Dawn, and New Horizons spacecraft, scientists have been revisiting the data collected by Voyager in addition to the data obtained by ground-based telescopes. This has led NASA scientists to conclude that four of Uranus' largest moons -- Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon -- probably contain water oceans below their icy crusts. These oceans are likely dozens of kilometers deep and probably fairly salty in being sandwiched between the upper ice and inner rock core.
In response to these discoveries, NASA is planning to launch a mission to Europa, an ice-encrusted moon in the Jovian system, as early as 2024. Another mission may launch to Saturn's moon Titan a few years later, where there are oceans of liquid methane on the surface. And just last month, the European Space Agency launched a spacecraft, Juice, to explore several icy moons at Jupiter. Now, NASA may need to add the moons of Uranus to its exploration hit list. Besides being known for its funny name and its brilliant cyan shade, Uranus has at least 27 moons. And they're pretty intriguing, too. The space agency has only ever flown one spacecraft, Voyager 2, by the seventh planet in our Solar System. The Voyager spacecraft flew by Uranus a long time ago, in 1985. But in light of the discoveries made by the Cassini, Dawn, and New Horizons spacecraft, scientists have been revisiting the data collected by Voyager in addition to the data obtained by ground-based telescopes. This has led NASA scientists to conclude that four of Uranus' largest moons -- Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon -- probably contain water oceans below their icy crusts. These oceans are likely dozens of kilometers deep and probably fairly salty in being sandwiched between the upper ice and inner rock core.
I look forward to visiting one of these oceans... (Score:1)
...FOR ME TO POOP ON!!!
SpaceFood (Score:3)
I wonder what a shrimp from Europa tastes like?
--
The food isn't too bad. It's very different from the food that the astronauts ate in the very early days of the space program. - Sally Ride
Re: (Score:3)
Chicken.
Re: SpaceFood (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
My daughter's team picked Uranus for her grade-school solar-system project, and I asked her why. "It's such a pretty blue-green color, and Neptune was taken". I added, "is it too late to swap? Uranus has a bad rap. Only the loser kids got stuck with Uranus in my day."
She replied, "Daddy, the jokes are my problem, not yours, let me deal. Unlike you, I have people skills". Burned in the Uranus...as both a student and parent.
Re: (Score:2)
It's one of the most satisfying things in the world when your kid throws legitimate shade at you; it's both humiliating and pride filling at the same time.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds suspiciously like space hemorrhoids......
(ouch!)
Re: (Score:2)
4 moons around Uranus?
Sounds suspiciously like space hemorrhoids......
(ouch!)
+1 Funny...if I had mod points
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
almost as funny as typing 5318008 on a calculator and turning it 180 degrees
Or you could get an HP-41C and type in all manner of dirty words directly in alpha mode.
Gravitational shearing forces heating the oceans (Score:2)
Re:Gravitational shearing forces heating the ocean (Score:4, Informative)
> how much oxygen or other essentials might be there
Early Earth life didn't need oxygen. In fact, oxygen was poisonous to most of it. Most lived off local chemistry, not so much sunlight. Photosynthesis was gradually invented and improved, then reached a tipping point where mass oxygen was being produced, killing off most branches of microbes. New kids were in town who knew oxygen.
It seems biology merely needs water, time, and "interesting" chemistry to make a living. It "learns" to mine just about anything. However, mAcro-organisms probably need choosier conditions.
Hemorrhoids full of water? (Score:1)
Venus? (Score:2)
Re: Venus? (Score:2)
All these worlds your except europa :p (Score:2)
I thought the message was clear in the 2001 documentary :p
Looks like we're heading forward with a recipe for trouble
Not Venus, but Saturn (Score:3)
Cassini was a Saturn mission.
AFAIK, no moons around planets further in from us.
Re: Not Venus, but Saturn (Score:2)
Decadal Survey (Score:3)
Why? (Score:3)
Why are we so keen to find life? When someone discovers a new flesh-eating bacteria here on earth, are we super-happy we found more life?
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
because if life exists in 2 unrelated environments in our solar system, it is almost guaranteed to exist throughout the entire universe.
was this a serious question, or did i get whooshed?
Re: (Score:2)
The features of the environments are different than on Earth, so there's that.
Is simple proofreading just too much to ask? (Score:2)
"...Galileo and Cassini, respectively -- to fly around Jupiter and Venus to explore the dozens of moons that exist in those planetary systems. The spacecraft investigated all manner of intriguing moons....But the most consistently interesting discovery made by these probes was that Jupiter and Venus are surrounded by small and large moons ..."?
C'mon.
Re: Is simple proofreading just too much to ask? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is terrible. Slashdot has hit a new low.
/. only ever gets HIGH when they get "fresh grow" from their suppliers in the Mendocino woods.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Obligatory SMBC (Score:1)
https://www.smbc-comics.com/co... [smbc-comics.com]
how many moons? (Score:2)
We all know there are only two moons around yer anus. I don't care what "the astronomy" says. It's just some politically correct woke bullshit. I think I'll just declare that I'm feeling like a gas giant today, and that will make it true! I don't care who wants to wear a Kupier Belt as long as they don't go telling me Pluto, the dog planet, is not a real planet. I wonder what the damn pronouns are for those two extra moons, anyway. This is settled science and your woke "observations" don't change it. And if
Re:how many moons? (Score:4, Funny)
We all know there are only two moons around yer anus.
But how many Klingons?
Re: (Score:3)
You see, it's stupid jokes like this that make it necessary to change the planet's name to Urectum!
Re: (Score:3)
You see, it's stupid jokes like this that make it necessary to change the planet's name to Urectum!
I remember when on the news they one day started pronouncing it Yuur-ahh-nEss, because Dan Rather could not bring himself to say, "Dark rings have been discovered around your anus" on national TV.
Re: (Score:2)
The simplest thing would be that you Americans learn how to pronounce Uranus correctly. ... that would be to simple. Hint: it is not "your anus" - not even remotely.
But alas
I bet (Score:1)
"Jupiter and Venus" should be "Jupiter and Saturn" (Score:2)
Whoever wrote the summary should be fired.
The dirtiest words said on television (Score:2)