Latest Europa Stories
Curved features on Jupiter's moon Europa may indicate that its poles have wandered by almost 90°, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution, Lunar and Planetary Institute, and University of California, Santa Cruz in the 15 May issue of Nature. Such an extreme shift suggests the existence of an internal liquid ocean beneath the icy crust, which could help build the case for Europa as possible habitat for extraterrestrial life.The research team, which included Isamu Matsuyama of the...
A University of Illinois at Chicago scientist will lead a team testing a robotic probe in a polar-style, under-ice exploration that may have out-of-this world applications.But the team will keep to a venue that's much closer to home.Peter Doran, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at UIC, will lead the team Feb. 11-15 working in the icy waters of Lake Mendota off the campus of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.They'll conduct an under-ice test of a NASA-funded robotic...
Jupiter's moon Europa is just as far away as ever, but new research is bringing scientists closer to being able to explore its tantalizing ice-covered ocean and determine its potential for harboring life. "We've learned a lot about Europa in the past few years," says William B. McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. "Before we were almost sure that there was an ocean, but now the scientific community has come to a consensus that there most...
There could be life on Jupiter's moon, Europa. The qualities thought necessary for life to arise are liquid water, an energy source, and certain biogenic elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and Europa likely has all of these in abundance. The moon's icy shell is scarred with a crazy-quilt pattern of cracks and grooves, and beneath that outer layer of ice hides a global ocean. What sort of life may be swimming there? Answering that question partly depends on the flavor of the...
New research in Antarctica has revealed cells that might repair their DNA at extremely cold temperatures and, in doing so, could effectively be 'immortal'. If confirmed, the findings would have implications for the potential for life in the ice of worlds like Mars and Europa.LSU - If confirmed, "immortal cells" could prove potential for life on Mars and Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.Antarctica is home to the largest body of ice on Earth. Prior to approximately 10 years ago, no one...
A robotic probe designed to draw an underwater three-dimensional map showing the biological and geochemical composition of an ice-bound Antarctica lake may prove to be the ideal tool to search for life on other planets or moons where ice is known to exist.Peter Doran, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the lead investigator in a three-year, $2.3 million dollar study funded by NASA to build the probe that will map Antarctica's...
Andy Cheng has seen it all. The scientist from Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab has worked on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Cassini mission to Saturn, the NEAR mission to asteroid 433 Eros and many others during his decades-long career. Alien vistas are old hat to him.But even he was amazed when he laid eyes on this photo of Io's Tvashtar volcano, taken Feb. 28th by the New Horizons spacecraft:Omigod! I can't believe it. "That was my first reaction," says Cheng. "The...
AUSTIN, Texas -- Scientists return this week to the world's deepest known sinkhole, Cenote Zacatón in Mexico, to resume tests of a NASA-funded robot called DEPTHX, designed to survey and explore for life in one of Earth's most extreme regions and potentially in outer space.If all goes well with this second round of testing and exploration, the team will return in May for a full-scale exploration of the Zacatón system.Sinking more than 1,000 feet, Zacatón has only been partially...
BERKELEY "“ While NASA and the European Space Agency focus on Mars rovers and future missions to search for life on the Red Planet, a determined core of scientists is lobbying for equal attention to a place they feel is just as likely to harbor life - Jupiter's icy moon Europa."Because of the well-supported presence of water ice on Europa and the probability that there are briny oceans, Europa has to be a major target for the search for life in the solar system," said...
Yogi Berra supposedly suggested that when you come to a fork in the road, you are supposed to take it. That's just what planetary scientists studying the rich data set from the Galileo Mission to the outer solar system are doing now. They're taking the fork. According to William B. McKinnon, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, the community suffers from an embarrassment of riches, because each of the moons of Jupiter...
Latest Europa Reference Libraries
Europe is, by regulation, one of the world’s seven continents. Consisting of the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Black and Caspian Seas, and the waterways that connect the Black and Aegean Seas. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean towards the north, Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Black Sea and connected waterways to the southeast....
Galileo Probe -- The Galileo probe was an unmanned probe sent by NASA to study the planet Jupiter and its moons. Named after the astronomer Galileo Galilei, it was launched on October 18 1989 by the Space Shuttle Atlantis and arrived at Jupiter on December 7 1995. Galileo's launch had been significantly delayed by the hiatus in Space Shuttle launches that occurred after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, and new safety protocols that were implemented as a result forced Galileo to use...
Jupiter's Moon Ganymede -- Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system with a diameter of 5,268 km (3270 miles). It is larger than Mercury and Pluto, and three-quarters the size of Mars. If Ganymede orbited the Sun instead of orbiting Jupiter, it would easily be classified as a planet. If Ganymede orbited the Sun instead of Jupiter it could be classified as a planet. Like Callisto, Ganymede is most likely composed of a rocky core with a water/ice mantle and a crust of rock and...
Jupiter's Moon Europa -- Europa is a puzzle. The sixth largest moon in our Solar System, Europa confounds and intrigues scientists. Few bodies in the Solar System have attracted as much scientific attention as this moon of Jupiter because of its possible subsurface ocean of water. The more we learn about this icy moon, the more questions we have. Because the nature of science is to ask questions, we cannot resist the mystery of Europa and its potential for possessing an ocean. Early...
Jupiter's Moon Io -- Looking like a giant pizza covered with melted cheese and splotches of tomato and ripe olives, Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Volcanic plumes rise 300 kilometers (190 miles) above the surface, with material spewing out at nearly half the required escape velocity. A bit larger than Earth's moon, Io is the third largest of Jupiter's moons, and the fifth one in distance from the planet. Although Io always points the same side toward...
