Europa

ESA Turns On The JUICE For New Jupiter Mission

May 2, 2012

The European Space Agency has given the go-ahead for an exciting mission to explore the icy moons of Jupiter, as well as the giant planet itself. JUICE — JUpiter ICy moons Explorer — will consist of a solar-powered spacecraft that will spend 3.5 years within the Jovian system, investigating Ganymede, Europa and the upper atmosphere [...]

Read the full article →

Europa’s Acidic Oceans May Prohibit Life

March 2, 2012

The more we explore our solar system, the more we find things in common. Jupiter’s frigid moon – Europa – is about the size of our satellite and – like Earth – home to some very hostile environments. Underneath what is surmised to be an icy crust a few miles deep, Europa may possess an [...]

Read the full article →

Ancient Antarctic Ice Sampled In Lake Vostok Drill

February 8, 2012

Sealed off for millions of years beneath an almost impenetrable layer of ice, Lake Vostok has kept a vast archive of ancient history waiting for just the right moment to reveal itself. Here is a unique closed ecosystem captured in time below four kilometers of ice. Saved from environmental contamination, its water has been isolated [...]

Read the full article →

Does Life on the Seafloor Predict Life on Other Worlds?

January 10, 2012

Scientists have recently discovered communities of previously unknown species living on the seafloor near Antarctica clustered around hydrothermal vents. This discovery is certainly exciting for biologists, but it’s also important for astrobiologists. It begs the question — if life can thrive in the deep, dark oceans without sunlight, could similar life thrive elsewhere in our [...]

Read the full article →

NASA Planning for Possible Landings on Europa

December 14, 2011

All these worlds are yours except Europa Attempt no landing there Use them together use them in peace  Despite that famous cryptic warning in the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, NASA is planning for a possible attempted landing on Jupiter’s moon Europa. This is a mission that many people have been hoping for, since [...]

Read the full article →

Europa’s Hidden Great Lakes May Harbor Life

November 16, 2011

New research on Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa indicates the presence of a subsurface lake buried beneath frozen mounds of huge jumbled chunks of ice. While it has long been believed that Europa’s ice lies atop a deep underground ocean, these new findings support the possibility of large pockets of liquid water being much closer to [...]

Read the full article →

A Tale of Three Moons: Is There Life in the Outer Solar System?

October 18, 2011

Until fairly recently, the search for life elsewhere in the solar system has focused primarily on Mars, as it is the most Earth-like of all the other planets in the solar system. The possibility of finding any kind of life farther out in the outer solar system was considered very unlikely at best; too cold, [...]

Read the full article →

Juno Spacecraft Honors Those Who Started It All

August 9, 2011

The Juno spacecraft, now safely on its way to the planet Jupiter, is carrying along with it several artifacts in honor of its voyage. Onboard the probe are three, tiny figurines of key players in the mythological and historical background of the gas giant. LEGO figurines of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and [...]

Read the full article →

NASA Mission to Europa May Fall to Budget Cuts

March 4, 2011

Next week, the US National Academy of Sciences will release their decadal review of priorities for planetary science in 2013-2022, and it will be interesting to see how highly prioritized a mission to Jupiter’s enticing moon Europa will be. But according to Space News, word from the NASA Advisory Council’s planetary science subcommittee is that [...]

Read the full article →

“Astrobiology” Parody Video of Ke$ha’s “We R Who We R”

January 3, 2011

Wanna get turned on by … “Astrobiology” ?? Are we alone in the universe? Well check out just this newly-released music video parody of Ke$ha’s hit song “We R Who We R” – “Astrobiology.” Suspend your disbelief. It’s different. It’s cool. And it’s very clever. And .. It’s even better the second time around when [...]

Read the full article →

Europa’s Tidal Processes Give Hints to Our Moon’s Far-side Bulge

November 11, 2010

A self-conscious Moon might ask, “Does my far side look big?” To which lunar scientists would have to reply in the affirmative. They have long known there is a bulge on the Moon’s far side, a thick region of the lunar crust which underlies the farside highlands. But why that bulge is there has been [...]

Read the full article →

Acid Rain-Like Chemistry Could Occur in Europa’s Ice Crust

October 4, 2010

A new look at how chemicals on Jupiter’s moon Europa may be reacting together could provide new insight to how chemical reactions could be occurring in the moon’s icy crust, despite frigid temperatures. Researchers have found that water and sulfur dioxide react together very quickly, even at temperatures hundreds of degrees below freezing. Because the [...]

Read the full article →

Europa Analog Deep-Sea Vents Discovered in the Caribbean

July 22, 2010

White sand, blue water, sunny skies, pina coladas. When you think of “extreme environments” I doubt the Caribbean is high on your list. But a team of scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic institute and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, exploring the 68-mile-long Mid-Cayman rise deep beneath the surface of the Caribbean, have discovered the deepest known [...]

Read the full article →

Europa Capable of Supporting Life, Scientist Says

October 8, 2009

The global ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa contains about twice the liquid water of all the Earth’s oceans combined. New research by Richard Greenberg of the University of Arizona suggests that there may be plenty of oxygen available in that ocean to support life, a hundred times more oxygen than previously estimated.

Read the full article →

Europa Submarine Prototype Gets Another Test

November 12, 2008

A submersible probe that could possibly be used on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa is taking the next step to test its capabilities. The Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer, also known as ENDURANCE, will swim untethered under ice, and collect data to create three-dimensional maps of underwater environments. The probe also will take samples of [...]

Read the full article →

Pole Shift on Europa?

May 14, 2008

Curved features on Jupiter’s moon Europa may indicate that its poles have wandered by almost 90°, a new study reports. Researchers believe the drastic shift in Europa’s rotational axis was likely a result of the build-up of thick ice at the poles. “A spinning body is most stable with its mass farthest from its spin [...]

Read the full article →

Testing a Europa Probe Prototype

February 9, 2008

While NASA doesn’t have any definite plans to send a probe to study Jupiter’s moon Europa, many planetary scientists consider the exploration of this enticing moon to be a high priority. Evidence from the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft suggests Europa contains a deep ocean of salty water under an icy outer shell. NASA is, however, [...]

Read the full article →

Making the Case for Europa

December 14, 2007

Nick had an article last week about a new technique that might help scientists figure out just how deep the oceans on Europa are. Deep oceans with a thin crust might give a rover, or a submarine, a fighting chance to get down to that precious H2O, and sample it for evidence of life. Researchers [...]

Read the full article →

Europa’s Ocean: Thick or Thin?

December 4, 2007

How do you determine the thickness of an ocean that you can’t see, let alone know how salty it is? Europa, the sixth satellite from Jupiter, is thought to have an ocean of liquid water underneath its icy surface. We know this because of its remarkably uncratered surface and the way its magnetic field reacts [...]

Read the full article →

A Submarine for Europa

August 29, 2007

Many planetary scientists believe that Jupiter’s moon Europa is our solar system’s best contender to share Earth’s distinction of harboring life. Evidence gathered by the Voyager and Galileo spacecrafts suggests Europa contains a deep, possibly warm ocean of salty water under an outer shell of fissured ice. In a paper published in the July 2007 [...]

Read the full article →