Highly-advanced aliens aiding the development of life take an interest in the primitive life forms under Europa's ice. RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio, What Fraser's Watching Playlist: The team modeled how the extreme heat released by the impact could have affected the local ice shelf. Sorry ! Going Under the Ice - YouTube One of the co-authors of this new paper, Dr. Don Blankenship at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, is also the principal investigator for REASON, and is focused on ensuring that his instrument is capable of collecting data that can test the hypothesis developed in this paper. Karla Thompson – @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw Observations have actually currently validated the presence of a sub-surface ocean on Europa, and th And More…, Episode 698: Open Space 95: Would SpaceX Have Survived without NASA? Here’s 2021, Hour by Hour, Stanford researchers model source of eurption on Jupiter’s moon Europa, Brine Migration and Impact-Induced Cryovolcanism on Europa, Even More Evidence that Europa has Geysers, https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Today-Ultimate-Viewing-Cosmos/dp/1624145442/, https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK–MdCSg, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw, Episode 699: Open Space 96: The End of the International Space Station? This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It could then be sampled with a simple fly-by mission, such as Europa Clipper, rather than a submersible craft. Follow us on Twitter: @universetoday https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter, Weekly Space Hangout: In the 1960s, ground-based telescope observations determined that Europa's surface composition is mostly water ice, as are most other solid bodies of the outer solar system. Chad Weber – [email protected], Support Universe Today podcasts with Fraser Cain. Beneath the crust, a subsurface ocean of liquid water up to 100 kilometers deep is thought to exist. Ice-covered Europa follows an elliptical path in its 85 hour orbit around our ruling gas giant Jupiter. These include carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur, which are common elements, and scientists think it's likely they were present on Europa as it formed. Join us at patreon.com/universetoday. They will have to wait a while to collect any of that data, as the Europa Clipper mission is scheduled to arrive at the moon in approximately 2030. Europa plays a role in the book and film of Arthur C. Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two and its sequels. The data they focused on Manannán, a crater that was created millions of years ago when the moon collided with a comet or asteroid sized object. Worlds like Europa and Enceladus, which have vast oceans of liquid water beneath a shell of water ice. Instagram – https://instagram.com/universetoday, Team: Fraser Cain – @fcain / [email protected] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/, Astronomy Cast: [127] [158] Even if Europa lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity, a 2016 NASA study found that Earth-like levels of hydrogen and oxygen could be produced through processes related to serpentinization and ice-derived oxidants, which do not directly involve volcanism . These liquid patches can then travel around inside the ice sheet, and when they meet a particularly loose piece of the ice sheet covering Europa’s surface, could explode into the geysers the moon is so famous for. The Guide to Space is a series of space and astronomy poddcasts by Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today, Episode 700: Interview: Wallace Arthur and the Biological Universe. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK–MdCSg, Support us at: https://www.patreon.com/universetoday https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/biological-universe/4599E17C7FAAECE4A87038C62039C755, Our Book is out! The surface of Europa is very cold and covered with ice. Europa: Discover Life Under the Ice Poster Illustration Credit: NASA, JPL, Visions of the Future. And just in the last year, astrobiologists announced that hardy forms of Earth life should be able to thrive in these oceans, feeding off hydrogen gas emanating from deep sea vents.Clearly we need to explore these worlds, to go deep down beneath the ice to explore the ocean depths. Life on Europa? Wallace Arthur is an evolutionary biologist and emeritus professor of Zoology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The 1,900-mile-wide (3,100 kilometers) Europa harbors a huge ocean beneath its icy shell. They transform Jupiter into a star to kick-start their evolution, and forbid humans from landing on or colonizing Europa. Learn More:Stanford: Stanford researchers model source of eurption on Jupiter’s moon EuropaGeophysical Research Letters: Brine Migration and Impact-Induced Cryovolcanism on EuropaUT: Even More Evidence that Europa has GeysersLead Image Credit: Justice Blaine Wainwright. Heat generated from strong tidal flexing by Jupiter's gravity keeps Europa's salty subsurface ocean liquid all year round. While there have been tentative plans to send a submersible spacecraft to this ocean, we are still a long way from uncovering what lies in those depths. Until then, there are plenty of other data sets from Galileo that could use a second glance, as this team has already proven. As with almost all things science, further data is needed, and the team hopes to receive some from the Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) instrument on the Europa Clipper mission. And More…, Episode 695: Q&A 130: Does the Dark Forest Explain the Fermi Paradox? This ice forms a "crust" on the moon that is thought to be several kilometers thick. Join our 836 patrons! That also means even in the absence of sunlight Europa has energy that could support simple life forms. Scientists ponder the possibilities. The paper, written by an interdisciplinary team from Stanford, the University of Arizona, the University of Texas, and NASA’s JPL, used data from the Galileo spacecraft, which made multiple flybys of the moon. Ice-covered Europa follows an elliptical path in its 85 hour orbit around our ruling gas giant Jupiter. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday And More…, Episode 691: Interview: Seth Shostak from the SETI Institute, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. We’re now learning that icy worlds seem to be the best places in Solar System where life could be hiding. (Printed And Shipped From The USA) View Coffee Mug Item Details. Posted on November 26, 2020 November 26, 2020 by Andy Tomaswick Geysers on Europa might come from pockets of water under the ice Observations have already confirmed the … https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmkjd428BcHcCEVWOjv7cJ1G, Weekly email newsletter: However, a new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters suggests a much more mundane source of the geysers – local liquid water buried in the moon’s thick ice shelf. Getting through the ice. Unfortunately, that means it is less likely that these geysers come from the sub-surface ocean, and therefore we are less likely to find biological signatures in them.