It's happening.gif http://observer.com/2016/08/not-a-d...ible-extraterrestrial-signal-from-deep-space/
God damnit Turns out the signal astronomers saw was “strong” because it came from Earth Of course, you already knew that if you read the skeptical Ars report on Monday. ERIC BERGER - 8/31/2016, 12:43 PM\ Ars was among the first news outlets to report on discussions among astronomers about observations of an intriguing "signal" that may have originated from a distant, Sun-like star. We cautioned readers that, because the signal was measured at 11Ghz, there was a "significant chance" it was of terrestrial origin, likely due to some military activity. FURTHER READING SETI has observed a “strong” signal that may originate from a Sun-like star Well, it apparently was. First, astronomers with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence downplayed the possibility of an alien civilization. "There are many other plausible explanations for this claimed transmission, including terrestrial interference," Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with SETI, wrote. Now the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences has concurred, releasing a statement on the detection of a radio signal at the RATAN-600 radio astronomy observatory in southern Russia. "Subsequent processing and analysis of the signal revealed its most probable terrestrial origin," the Russian scientists said. (Maybe it was really Steve Martinand his hair dryer?) For now, let's not tell the good people at Good Morning America, who were still furiouslytweeting this morning about the possibility of finding an alien civilization.
If not for the Cold War one can only imagine how much more advanced our space exploration would be. Just imagine if the people who designed weapons in the 60's through 80's were put to better use in the space program.
Couldn't you argue that for a period of time, the 60s, that the Cold War helped advance space exploration more than it would have otherwise?
lol facebook -- According to numerous eyewitness reports, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just exploded while resting on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral. This rocket was set to launch on Saturday, September 3 on a mission to deliver Facebook’s first satellite to orbit. The status of the payload is unknown at this time. The Associated Press is now stating that the rocket exploded during a test. We reached out to SpaceX for confirmation and details of the explosion. They have yet to release a statement or respond.
Jupiter’s North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this view as it closed in on Jupiter's north pole, about two hours before closest approach on Aug. 27, 2016. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Full image and caption NASA’s Juno spacecraft has sent back the first-ever images of Jupiter’s north pole, taken during the spacecraft’s first flyby of the planet with its instruments switched on. The images show storm systems and weather activity unlike anything previously seen on any of our solar system’s gas-giant planets. Juno successfully executed the first of 36 orbital flybys on Aug. 27 when the spacecraft came about 2,500 miles (4,200 kilometers) above Jupiter’s swirling clouds. The download of six megabytes of data collected during the six-hour transit, from above Jupiter’s north pole to below its south pole, took one-and-a-half days. While analysis of this first data collection is ongoing, some unique discoveries have already made themselves visible. “First glimpse of Jupiter’s north pole, and it looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “It’s bluer in color up there than other parts of the planet, and there are a lot of storms. There is no sign of the latitudinal bands or zone and belts that we are used to -- this image is hardly recognizable as Jupiter. We’re seeing signs that the clouds have shadows, possibly indicating that the clouds are at a higher altitude than other features.” One of the most notable findings of these first-ever pictures of Jupiter’s north and south poles is something that the JunoCam imager did not see. “Saturn has a hexagon at the north pole,” said Bolton. “There is nothing on Jupiter that anywhere near resembles that. The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique. We have 36 more flybys to study just how unique it really is.” Along with JunoCam snapping pictures during the flyby, all eight of Juno’s science instruments were energized and collecting data. The Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), supplied by the Italian Space Agency, acquired some remarkable images of Jupiter at its north and south polar regions in infrared wavelengths. “JIRAM is getting under Jupiter’s skin, giving us our first infrared close-ups of the planet,” said Alberto Adriani, JIRAM co-investigator from Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome. “These first infrared views of Jupiter’s north and south poles are revealing warm and hot spots that have never been seen before. And while we knew that the first-ever infrared views of Jupiter's south pole could reveal the planet's southern aurora, we were amazed to see it for the first time. No other instruments, both from Earth or space, have been able to see the southern aurora. Now, with JIRAM, we see that it appears to be very bright and well-structured. The high level of detail in the images will tell us more about the aurora’s morphology and dynamics.” Among the more unique data sets collected by Juno during its first scientific sweep by Jupiter was that acquired by the mission’s Radio/Plasma Wave Experiment (Waves), which recorded ghostly-sounding transmissions emanating from above the planet. These radio emissions from Jupiter have been known about since the 1950s but had never been analyzed from such a close vantage point. “Jupiter is talking to us in a way only gas-giant worlds can,” said Bill Kurth, co-investigator for the Waves instrument from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. “Waves detected the signature emissions of the energetic particles that generate the massive auroras which encircle Jupiter’s north pole. These emissions are the strongest in the solar system. Now we are going to try to figure out where the electrons come from that are generating them.” The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida and arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. Juno was about 48,000 miles (78,000 kilometers) above Jupiter's polar cloud tops when it captured this view, showing storms and weather unlike anywhere else in the solar system. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Full image and caption This infrared image from Juno provides an unprecedented view of Jupiter's southern aurora. Such views are not possible from Earth. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Full image and caption
Thirteen hours of radio emissions from Jupiter's intense auroras are presented here, both visually and in sound. The data was collected when the spacecraft made its first orbital pass of the gas giant on Aug 27, 2016, with all spacecraft instruments turned on. The frequency range of these signals is from 7 to 140 kilohertz. Radio astronomers call these "kilometric emissions" because their wavelengths are about a kilometer long. As Juno approached Jupiter on August 27, 2016, it's Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument captured the planet's glow in infrared light. The full story and more images from Juno's first pass of Jupiter with all instruments on is at: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/jupi...
I would guess they're trying to say that if the Falcon 9 were capped with a manned capsule, it would have survived the explosion because the abort speed > the speed of the explosion.
From August 26th ROSETTA CAPTURES COMET OUTBURST 25 August 2016 In unprecedented observations made earlier this year, Rosetta unexpectedly captured a dramatic comet outburst that may have been triggered by a landslide. Nine of Rosetta’s instruments, including its cameras, dust collectors, and gas and plasma analysers, were monitoring the comet from about 35 km in a coordinated planned sequence when the outburst happened on 19 February. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_captures_comet_outburst http://m.esa.int/var/esa/storage/im...339-1-eng-GB/Comet_outburst_highlight_mob.gif
By Shannon Hall Step aside, alien megastructure. It seems that the behaviour of an oddity known as Tabby’s star – which some have speculated may be caused by a massive extraterrestrial construction project – might in reality be explained by interstellar junk. KIC 8462852, as it is more officially called, was spotted by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which recently spent four years carefully watching the same patch of sky and looking for any stars that dipped in brightness at regular intervals. These dips, which can be as large as 1 per cent, happen when an exoplanet crosses in front of a star. But Tabby’s star dimmed randomly, and by as much as 20 per cent, leaving astronomers dumbfounded – and leading to the speculation that an alien megastructure was responsible for the signal. Now Valeri Makarov at the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC and Alexey Goldin at Teza Technologies in Chicago, Illinois, have taken a closer look at the smallest of the star’s dips in light – only to find that Tabby’s star isn’t responsible for them. Whenever the small dips occur, there is also a slight jump in the position of the light, leading them to conclude that it is actually a different star along the line of sight that is dimming. Tabby’s star is still responsible for the largest dips in light, however. If more than one star is dimming, say Makarov and Goldin, then the culprit for the erratic behaviour can’t be an asteroid belt, debris from a smash-up between two larger bodies, or an alien megastructure around Tabby’s star. In fact, it can’t be anything around Tabby’s star alone. Instead, it has to be something lying between us and them. Interstellar comets The pair speculate that this something may be a swarm of “interstellar comets”. These objects are created in star-forming regions, says Makarov, and when those objects move apart over time, all the stars and comets become scattered. “So maybe interstellar space is full of free-floating comets,” he says. “But try to find them! They are dark and cold, and travelling from nowhere to nowhere, basically, forever.” “If this is right, then that conclusion is dead on,” says Jason Wright at Pennsylvania State University, who postulated the alien megastructure in the first place – although he notes that comets are usually defined by their proximity to a star, so calling them “interstellar comets” doesn’t make sense. A second dimming star automatically leads to an interstellar explanation, he says. Wright himself had lately come to a similar conclusion. The latest evidence shows that not only does Tabby’s star dim sporadically, but it also appears to have been gradually fading for a century. Wright thinks that only an interstellar cloud passing in front of the star could explain such long-term dimming. But, he concedes, “we don’t know of any such cloud along the line of sight”, and observing one directly will be tricky. Instead, Makarov thinks our best chance is to wait a decade or so until the blended, second star has moved away from Tabby’s star and we can catch the intruder red-handed.
also, FFT out of our universe (discounting separate dimensions and such), dark matter and dark energy make up over 90% of the mass/energy that exists. the rocks, trees, stars, planets etc. make up for only around 5% fucking a
NASA will announce new findings about Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa during a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday (Sept. 26). "Astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa," NASA officials wrote in a media advisory Tuesday (Sept. 20). The new information comes courtesy of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, agency officials said. You can follow the news conference live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA.
Time doesn't exist. It was made up by humans to have a reference point. What is has always been and always will be.
Time and space being wrapped into each other isnt a new theory but the cosmological examples are neat, as is the statement on the thermodynamics
He seems to be picking at the outskirts of quantum theory of gravity, which i know jack shit about except that time may be quantized when you measure it on the order of square root (plank const * grav const / speed o' dat light^5)
Pretty sure this is what it was about. Video in link. On Jupiter's Moon Europa, More Tantalizing Signs of Giant Water Plumes By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | September 26, 2016 03:54pm ET A suspected water plume erupts from Jupiter's icy moon Europa (visible at the 7 o'clock position at lower left) in this composite image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on Jan. 26, 2014. NASA unveiled the image on Sept. 26, 2016. Credit: NASA/ESA/W. Sparks (STScI)/USGS Astrogeology Science Center Good news on the alien-life-hunting front: The towering plumes emanating from Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa appear to be real. In late 2012, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted what seemed to be 125-mile-high (200 kilometers) geysers of water vapor erupting from Europa's south polar region. This news was exciting for astrobiologists and space geeks alike, for it suggested that a robotic probe may be able to sample Europa's huge global ocean — which lies beneath the moon's miles-thick icy shell — without even touching down. The 2012 observation remained a tantalizing outlier for years, however; astronomers failed to find the plume again with Hubble despite repeated attempts. But that long-sought repeat detection has finally been made, scientists announced today (Sept. 26). [Possible Water Vapor Plumes On Europa Spotted by Hubble Again (Video)] A team led by William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore used Hubble to hunt for Europa plumes on 10 separate occasions over a 15-month span. They had success three times, spotting apparent plume activity in January, March and April of 2014. "They appear to be real," Sparks said during a news conference today. "The statistical significance is pretty good, and I don’t know of any other natural alternative." Still, Sparks stopped short of calling the repeat detection a definitive confirmation. The newly announced detections were made when Europa passed in front of Jupiter from Hubble's perspective, and plume material seemed to block ultraviolet light coming from the giant planet. The observations Hubble made are right on the edge of the iconic telescope's capabilities, Sparks said. "We remain cautious," he said. "The problem is that there may be something we don't understand about the instrument, or about our model of the scene, or what Europa looks like in the ultraviolet light." Analyzing the Hubble data is also a complex process, which explains why the team is revealing the detections now, more than two years after they were made, Sparks added. Two images of Europa created in 2012 and 2014 by separate research teams using different observation methods reveal activity at a common location on Europa. The transit image on the left shows dark patches of light absorption in the same spot where researchers later found auroral emission from hydrogen and oxygen, the dissociation products of water. Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Sparks (left image) L. Roth (right image) The 2012 detection, which was actually announced in December 2013, was made by a different research group, one led by Lorenz Roth of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Roth and his colleagues used a different method to spot the apparent plume, but the two teams' observations dovetail nicely; both conclude that the plume is about 125 miles high and centered in Europa's southern reaches. The plume's likely existence should influence the planning of NASA's Europa mission, which the agency aims to launch in the 2020s. This Jupiter-orbiting mission will make multiple flybys of the moon over the course of several years, in an attempt to learn more about Europa's ocean and its potential to support life as we know it. "Today's results increase our confidence that water and other materials from Europa's ocean — Europa's hidden ocean, hidden under miles of ice — might be on the surface of Europa and available for us to study, without landing and digging through those unknown miles of ice,"said Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This illustration of ridges and fractures on Europa shows one possible way that water could reach Europa’s surface. Chloride salts in the underground ocean bubble up to the moon's frozen surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The combined Hubble observations also show that the Europa geysers, if they exist, are intermittent phenomena. If scientists learn more about when and why the geysers erupt, it might even be possible for the as-yet-unnamed NASA mission to fly through a Europan plume. "One of the biggest unknowns we have with these putative plumes is understanding their timing," said Curt Niebur, the Europa program scientist at NASA Headquarters. "And I think the more observations we can get with Hubble and with JWST [the James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA aims to launch in 2018] to better understand that, the better we can use that to construct a schedule for when we search for these plumes at close range from the Europa flyby mission." Sparks and his team are publishing their results in the Sept. 29 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. http://www.space.com/34196-jupiter-moon-europa-giant-water-plumes.html
This post needs a bump. Very cool video. How far off until this may become reality, does Space X say?
Saturn's Moon Dione May Have an Ocean, Too Avery Thompson October 1, 2016 From Popular Mechanics On Monday, the Hubble spacecraft discovered further evidence of a subsurface ocean of liquid water on Jupiter's moon Europa. Now, a group of scientists has announced that Saturn's moon Dione may also have a subsurface ocean. Their results are published in the journal Geophysical Review Letters. Back in 2014, scientists using the Cassini spacecraft to study one of Saturn's other moons, Enceladus, discovered that the moon experienced strange gravity fluctuations and wobbled as it spun. This was determined to be the result of a large ocean beneath the surface of the moon. The wobble happened because the water shifted and sloshed around. Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Now, observations from the same Cassini probe have discovered similar gravity fluctuations on Dione. These fluctuations are smaller and fainter than on Enceladus, but they could still hint at a liquid ocean hidden beneath the surface of this moon. If this hypothesis is correct, then the ocean on Dione would lie about 62 miles below its surface. It would be several miles deep and would surround the moon's rocky core. The presence of this ocean would cause Dione to wobble too, just like Enceladus. However, the wobble would be too faint for Cassini to measure. The scientists hope that a future mission to Saturn, with more sensitive equipment, could answer the question of whether there really is an ocean on Dione, and whether conditions might be right for life. Until then, all we can do is wait.
I get that you need water for life but don't you also need to be in the "habitable zone", which none of these moons are?
There are certain things that could make localized temperatures be suitable for life, even outside the habitable zone. Geological activity, for example, could create heat. The problem with those huge underground oceans is that there isn't a way for sunlight to get to the water.
If it is warm enough for liquid water, it is warm enough for life. The thinking is you don't need sunlight because there would be nutrients from the sea floor like hydrothermal vents on earth. The heat needed to have liquid water comes from the squeezing and expansion caused by the massive gravity of Saturn or Jupiter. Even Titan may have some form of life even though temps there are in the -200 degrees. It would be very different and likely very slow, but the chemical processes needed are there.
I always thought that the sea life on the lightless ocean floor on Earth was able to survive because it fed on organic detritus that floated down from the upper ocean, which was in turn produced by organisms who used sunlight. Didn't know the nutrients themselves came from the thermal vents.
It's both. Current thinking is life started at the hydrothermal vents before there was anything sinking from above.
What does Earth look like from Mars? October 3, 2016 by Matt Williams, Universe Today Image taken by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, showing Earth and the Moon. Credit: NASA/JPL Modern astronomy and space exploration has blessed us with a plethora of wonderful images. Whether they were images of distant planets, stars and galaxies taken by Earth-based telescopes, or close-ups of planets or moons in our own Solar System by spacecraft, there has been no shortage of inspiring pictures. But what would it look like to behold planet Earth from another celestial body? We all remember the breathtaking photos taken by the Apollo astronauts that showed what Earth looked like from the Moon. But what about our next exploration destination, Mars? With all the robotic missions on or in orbit around the Red Planet, you'd think that there would have been a few occasions where they got a good look back at Earth. Well, as it turn out, they did! Pictures from Space: Pictures of Earth have been taken by both orbital missions and surface missions to Mars. The earliest orbiters, which were part of the Soviet Mars and NASA Mariner programs, began arriving in orbit around Mars by 1971. NASA's Mariner 9 probe was the first to establish orbit around the planet's (on Nov. 14, 1971), and was also the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. The first orbiter to capture a picture of Earth from Mars, however, was the Mars Global Surveyor, which launched in Nov. 7th, 1996, and arrived in orbit around the planet on Sept. 12th, 1997. In the picture (shown above), which was taken in 2003, we see Earth and the Moon appearing closely together. Earth and the Moon, captured by the Mars Express spacecraft on July 3, 2003. Credit: ESA At the time the picture was taken, the distance between Mars and Earth was 139.19 million km (86.49 million mi; 0.9304 AU) while the distance between Mars and the Moon was 139.58 million km (86.73 million mi; 0.9330 AU). Interestingly enough, this is what an observer would see from the surface of Mars using a telescope, whereas a naked-eye observer would simply see a single point of light. Usually, the Earth and Moon are visible as two separate points of light, but at this point in the Moon's orbit they were too close to resolve with the naked eye from Mars. If you look closely at Earth, you can just make out the shape of South America. The picture above was snapped by the Mars Express's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the ESA's Mars Express probe. It was also taken in 2003, and is similar in that it shows the Earth and Moon together. However, in this image, we see the two bodies at different points in their orbit – which is why the Moon looks like its farther away. Interestingly enough, this image was actually part of the first data sets to be sent by the spacecraft. The next orbiter to capture an image of Earth from Mars was the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which was launched in August of 2005 and attained Martian orbit on March 10th, 2006. When the probe reached Mars, it joined five other active spacecraft that were either in orbit or on the surface, which set a record for the most operational spacecraft in the vicinity of Mars at the same time. Earth seen from Mars shortly before daybreak. This is the first image of the Earth from the surface of another planet. Credit: NASA/JPL In the course of its mission – which was to study Mars' surface and weather conditions, as well as scout potential landing sites – the orbiter took many interesting pictures. The one below was taken on Oct. 3rd, 2007, which showed the Earth and the Moon in the same frame. Pictures from the Surface: As noted already, pictures of Earth have also been taken by robotic missions to the surface of Mars. This has been the case for as long as space agencies have been sending rovers or landers that came equipped with mobile cameras. The earliest rovers to reach the surface – Mars 2 and Mars 3– were both sent by the Soviets. However, it was not until early March of 2004, while taking photographs of the Martian sky, that the Spirit rover became the first to snap a picture of Earth from the surface of another planet. This image was caught while the rover was attempting to observe Mars' moon Deimos making a transit of the Sun (i.e. a partial eclipse). Image taken by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, showing Earth and the Moon shining in the night sky. Credit: NASA/JPL This is something which happens quite often given the moon's orbital period of about 30 hours. However, on this occasion, the rover managed to also capture a picture of distant Earth, which appeared as little more than a particularly bright star in the night sky. The next rover to snap an image of Earth from the Martian surface was Curiosity, which began sending back many breathtaking photos even before it landed on Aug. 6th, 2012. And on Jan. 31st, 2014 – almost a year and a half into its mission – the rover managed to capture an image of both Earth and the Moon in the night sky. In the image (seen below), Earth and the Moon are just visible as tiny dots to the naked eye – hence the inset that shows them blown up for greater clarity. The distance between Earth and Mars when Curiosity took the photo was about 160 million km (99 million mi). Earth has been photographed from Mars several times now over the course of the past few decades. Each picture has been a reminder of just how far we've come as a species. It also provides us with a preview of what future generations may see when looking out their cabin window, or up at the night sky from other planets. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-10-earth-mars.html#jCp
New twist in SpaceX rocket blast probe October 2, 2016 The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on September 1, 2016 The mysterious explosion of a SpaceX rocket last month took an odd turn with a "cordial" encounter between staff of Elon Musk's firm and fierce rival United Launch Alliance, The Washington Post reported. No one was hurt in the September 1 blast, which came as the unmanned Falcon 9 rocket was being fueled ahead of a standard, pre-launch test in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Musk is rushing to revolutionize the launch industry by making rocket components reusable. And the accident—the second of its kind since SpaceX was founded in 2002—came just over a year after a Falcon 9 rocket failed after liftoff on June 28, 2015, destroying a Dragon cargo capsule bound for the International Space Station (ISS). Before that, SpaceX had logged 18 successful launches of the Falcon 9—including six of 12 planned supply missions to the ISS carried out as part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. During their investigation SpaceX officials found something suspicious they wanted to check out, the Post said, quoting three industry officials with knowledge of the episode. SpaceX had still images from video that seemed to show a shadow, then a white spot on the roof of a nearby building belonging to ULA, the Post said. ULA is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The United Launch Alliance is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing and a fierce rival to Elon Musk's SpaceX So a SpaceX employee visited ULA facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida and asked for access to the roof at one ULA building that had a close line of sight to the SpaceX launch. The visit was cordial, not accusatory. The ULA people denied access, but notified the Air Force, which inspected the roof and found nothing connected to the blast, the Post said. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-10-spacex-rocket-blast-probe.html#jCp
This does a pretty good job of explaining the how and why of Europa. Videos in link. http://www.space.com/34216-under-the-ice-of-europa.html What's Going on Under the Ice of Europa? By Paul Sutter, Astrophysicist | September 28, 2016 02:30pm ET An artist's concept of water plumes erupting from the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. Credit: G. Bacon (STScI) Paul Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University and the chief scientist at the COSI science center. Sutter is also host of Ask a Spaceman, RealSpace, and COSI Science Now. Habitable zone. Habitable zone. Habitable zone. In the search for life around other stars, that's all we hear about. Find an Earth-size planet? Hooray! Is it outside the habitable zone? No? Oh well, better luck next time. There are plenty of stellar fish in the galactic sea. It's only in the habitable zone — the "Goldilocks" region around a star where water can exist in liquidy peace — that life is possible. [The 6 Most Earth-Like Alien Planets] Or so we thought. The Europan mystery Far outside what any reasonable and right-thinking person would consider the habitable zone of Earth's own sun, the moons of the gas-giant planets lay dormant, locked in impossibly thick crusts of ice. Europa, the second major moon of Jupiter, is one such world. For decades, astronomers assumed the only interesting, active bodies in the outer solar system were the giant planets themselves, with their complex atmospheres, strong magnetic fields and hidden depths. These were phenomena worthy of study. But tiny, frigid Europa? Why bother? Bother because this moon's surface is fantastically smooth, almost entirely lacking craters. That's weird: Most of the old, cold, dead worlds in this solar system are pockmarked with craters, remnants of the Late Heavy Bombardment during the frenetic early days of the system's formation. Look at Earth's own moon. Look at Mercury. Old, scarred faces. Europa, on the other hand? A young, sparkling, fresh face. A face whose ice appears to grind and stress against itself like giant icebergs, a plate tectonic system made of ice. And then: geysers. Hubble observations of jets of water from the surface. Activity. Finally, all that red stuff on the surface. Deep red in the fissures between ice plates. Wide, broad plains sprinkled with a faint dusting of red material. What's going on? All the evidence points in the same direction: All that ice is hiding something. Buried beneath the surface is a globe-spanning ocean of liquid water. That's right: liquid water, in a place nobody would ever think to look. [Watch this video to learn more mysteries of Europa.] Biding the tide Scientists are eager to learn if Europa's huge subsurface ocean harbors alien life. See how Jupiter's icy moon Europa works in this SPACE.com infographic. Credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist To make liquid water, one needs heat, and a lot of it. Heat can come from nearby stars — which are, I'll admit, very, very hot — but there are other sources, too. And in Europa's case, that source is a dance. The tiny moon is tidally locked to giant Jupiter, always presenting the same face to its parent. Locking like that happens after a celestial body's gravity raises tidal bulges in a smaller object orbiting it. Just look at Earth's own moon: a bit bulgy around the middle, and always showing Earth a single face. Usually the tidal-lock process circularizes a moon's orbit. While that orbit may start out elliptical, over a few short million years it evens out to a nice, plain circle. But Europa is stuck in an odd configuration. The moon's inner neighbor, Io, and outer neighbor, Ganymede, are locked in a resonance with their fellow moon. Every time Europa orbits Jupiter once, Io races around exactly twice and Ganymede gets exactly halfway there. So these moons meet up a lot, and the bonus gravitational tugs keep Europa in a slightly elliptical orbit. Closer, farther, closer, farther. Europa is constantly indecisive about its relationship with Jupiter. When the moon is closer, it has big, tidal bulges. When it's further, it has smaller ones. Europa is getting squeezed and stretched like a giant ball of putty, manipulated by Jupiter's gravitational hands. And that makes the moon warm. Water, water everywhere Europa is in its own little habitable zone around Jupiter. It's not too close, which would turn it into a volcano extravaganza like Io, and not too far, which would leave it cold and unchanging like Callisto. Europa is warm, but not too hot. Water liquefies, but doesn't evaporate. Water is certainly a necessary condition for life as we know it, but there's more to it than that. Life needs all sorts of minerals and dissolved gases and chemicals to make itself go. Pure, clean H2O may be refreshing, but not very exiting from an are-we-alone perspective. Having the sun nearby is handy for developing life, since the action of photosynthesis can convert sunlight into food, but the ocean on Europa hasn't seen the face of the sun in billions of years. However, there is life on Earth that doesn't rely on the sun to survive; does that make the pitch-black water on Europa a possible home for little flippered critters? If Europa has volcanic vents at the bottom of its ocean, living creatures could definitely find a foothold. Those same vents on Earth provide the right nutrient and mineral mix to allow life to do its chemical thing in the murky depths. And even if Europa lacks those vents, there may still be a way. Recent evidence suggests that minerals from the rocky interior of Europa are seeping through cracks in the ice and getting blasted by UV radiation from the sun, lending Europa its blushing red surface. That same UV radiation can break apart water molecules, allowing oxygen to sink back down into the ocean. Minerals getting into the ocean from the bottom. Oxygen getting through from the top. Stirred, not shaken. Those are the kinds of ingredients life needs to get started in a watery environment. Attempt no landings there I mean, maybe. Scientists don't know if Europa has the right conditions for life, or how life would even get started there if the conditions were right. Researchers would love to go look, but at the outer solar system's cold temperatures, the moon's 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) of ice is literally rock-hard. Sure, a probe could land on the surface, but drilling through to explore the ocean is a tricky thing. Thankfully, researchers have the geysers, recently spotted again by the Hubble Space Telescope. The plumes of material might contain traces of the deep ocean's chemical balance, and space agencies are designing missions right now to orbit Europa, fly through those geysers and give the spacecraft a taste. Leading to one more all-important question: If there is life on Europa, is it delicious? Learn more by listening to the episode "Is there life on Europa?" on the Ask a Spaceman podcast, available on iTunes and on the Web at http://www.askaspaceman.com. Thanks to Robert M., Kieran P., and @Upguntha for the question that led to this piece! Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
So if there are geysers on Europa, isn't that a pipeline straight to the liquid ocean? In theory instead of drilling through 60 miles of ice, couldn't they have a rover drop a probe down the geyser?
Likely not a static place. If you could find one of those spots, the pressure there may be to much for a fairly fragile probe. But it would at least be thinner ice in that spot, don't know. First though, will be a orbiter sampling the plumes.