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Europa's Ocean Chemistry Could Be Earth-Like (discovery.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Alien life in the universe could be close to home, swimming around Europa's ocean. The idea has been floating around scientific minds for more than a decade: beneath the icy surface of the Jovian moon could slosh a deep, wide ocean with the perfect environment for life to develop. In new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, NASA scientists studied how the chemical composition of the Europan ocean may have evolved and what chemicals it possibly contains, assuming similar geochemical processes as on Earth are at play. Europa is thought to possess a rocky core fractured with deep cracks that have filled with water. Since the formation of the moon, the core has continued to cool, creating more cracks and exposing more rocks to chemical processes with this water."We're studying an alien ocean using methods developed to understand the movement of energy and nutrients in Earth's own systems," said planetary scientist Steve Vance, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The cycling of oxygen and hydrogen in Europa's ocean will be a major driver for Europa's ocean chemistry and any life there, just it is on Earth."
Life is a process and any substrate that facilitates that process qualifies as "alive." See: Code of the Lifemake for a illustration of that.
Shh.
Dammit, "Code of the Lifemaker." Not "Lifemake."
Shh.
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE."
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
In short, don't let Von Neumann probes run wild on distant planets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft#Von_Neumann_probes
There already is one of those, and it's just across the pond.
This was hinted at much longer than a decade ago:
"The idea that Europa and other ice-covered bodies in our solar system might possess an ocean of liquid water under a crust of ice was first proposed by John S. Lewis in his paper Satellites of the Outer Planets: Their Physical and Chemical Nature (which appeared in Icarus, vol.15, 1971)." (source: https://www.math.washington.ed...)
And I recall Carl Sagan talking about life on Europa in his Cosmos television show, back in the 80s.
But astrobiology has come a long way since then. I'm halfway through Nick Lane's "The Vital Question" and he goes into detail about the mechanisms which can form complex cellular structures given nothing but alkaline water, hydrocarbons, rock (to supply catalysts), and an energy source.
Can anyone provide a real answer to the question? I doubt it.
Someone else might find it useful today, tomorrow or 300 years from now. That's the nature of scientific research. How far would have Einstein have gotten without Newton?
I wouldn't know if there is life, but it sure looks like it hit something pretty big... I doubt it's alive now
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
The discovery of life on Europa, or anywhere else in the Universe for that matter, would immediately disprove and discredit the Holy Christian Bible and indeed all other earthly religions. The eventual demise of mankind's myths that have been around for thousands of years are a prerequisite to progress and future growth as a species, eventually leaving this little blue marble and taking our rightful place in the universe.
Hogan was a kook but he did write a few memorable stories, that was indeed one of them, but a compelling sci-fi story does not a scientific theory make...
Seems like more and more of Slashdot is this kind of regurgitated non news. This kind of speculation has been around since at least the mid eighties. There is very little new here.
Another illustration from fiction is Dragon's Egg.
Really though, what matters for "life" is that whatever the substrate is is able to store information - DNA in our case - and have an ecosystem of related ways to raise and lower energy states in appropriate materials. If both those conditions are met then the process a specific set of material changes with can be called "alive."
Shh.
" Can anyone provide a real answer to the question? "
For the same reason we maintain research settlements in Antarctica. Finding life in any other place would tell us a lot about the conditions in which any ecosystem and its species can survive. There would be intense study of what any species there might have in common with Earthly life, both to check for any proof of the panspermia hypothesis and to extend the extremophile envelope in which life can exist.
It also could be made of marshmallow.
Can anyone explain how this research impacts anyone in any substantial way
We explore because that's what humans do, those instincts have served us well and helped us climb to the top of the food chain. Also I think you mean "practical" rather than "substantial" because finding ET will have substantial philosophical impacts on billions of people, but probably won't have any immediate practical use..
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Why do we keep getting these articles about Europa devoid of any new science? Let me know when someone actually gets some new measurements or, for Christ’s sake, sends a probe to collect samples.
I'm not sure why people like you even go on living. Since you've already given up on learning, the only thing that truly matters in life, you may as well just kill yourself.
You sure have a lot of *ahem* faith that this shall come to pass. Not very prophetic, though.
The idea has been floating around scientific minds for more than a decade
More than a decade? As I recall this was a major plot element of 2010, Odyssey Two, published in 1982. No doubt the idea originated considerably earlier. So, more than three decades at least.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Do you really think everyone who is religious would just declare "Well, there's life on another planet, I guess God doesn't exist"? Of course not. They'll just say that God created that life also but the Bible was detailing the creation of life on Earth. The discovery of alien life won't mean much for them.
For scientists, though, the discovery of alien life would be an enormous discovery. We already know a lot about evolution, biology, etc, but all of our data points come from one source. This would be an entirely different source to examine. Would life on Europa have cell structures like ours or totally different? Would they have DNA or another information storing mechanism? Would they have eyes similar to ours, completely different, or no eyes at all? (Life in Europa's waters might be dark and so no eyes might be needed - or perhaps their eyes evolved to "see" certain forms of radiation.) The scientific advances from even the simplest life forms would be amazing.
For everyone else, the benefits would come down the road. With a greater understanding of biology and evolution, we might be able to design better treatments for diseases or fix genetic-based ailments.
Plus, there's the "coolness" factor of discovering that we're not alone in the Universe.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
All four Galilean moons are named after Zeus' (Jupiter's) lovers.
In 2007, the economic losses from crime in the US were $15 billion. A whopping $179 billion more was spent on police, legal proceedings, prisons, etc. In other words, we lose over $200 billion every year to crime.
Now, the percentage of crimes committed by illegal aliens is surprisingly hard to obtain — federal government is unwilling to keep an officially tally (maybe, Trump will fix this). But the sentencing statistics say: "Twelve percent of murder sentences, 20 percent of kidnapping sentences and 16 percent of drug trafficking sentences are meted out to illegal immigrants."
Maybe, that's an overestimate by those nasty racists at FauxNoos and the real figure is "only" 10%. If we could get rid of that, we'd be able to afford another NASA with the savings... But even if the money went to building the wall instead, as you suggested, we'd break even — just have fewer murders and kidnappings.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
He has no choice ultimately. Science has disproven free will. His posting, as yours, was set at the moment of the creation of the universe.
it hasn't been overfished
We learn useful things like antibiotics all the time studying Earth life. The amount of things we could learn studying alien life are incalculable. Small example: alternative metabolisms could be used to efficiently make chemicals or extract minerals from substrate where Earth life would not be able to.
This research is important because it shows what a loser you are. That is the only reason they are doing it.
He has no choice ultimately. Science has disproven free will. His posting, as yours, was set at the moment of the creation of the universe.
There may not be true free will, but you are not accounting for choice.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
This statement — unsupported by any citations, BTW — is irrelevant to my point. Even if they are less crime-prone on average, they are a source of crime anyway.
We can not get rid of native criminals by deporting them anywhere, but we can deport the folks, who have entered this country illegally (and already have this "original sin" to their name).
It may not stop that entirely, but it will reduce it, that's for sure. 15 years ago, when Israel was building its much derided wall, similar predictions of failure were made.
But the walls work:
According to a 2006 estimate cited by Slate (the article itself is hardly sympathetic to the idea, BTW), an Israel-kind of wall stretching for 2000 miles would cost $6.4 bln (or about 1/3rd the annual cost of NASA). And we may not even need it that high and sophisticated — because, unlike Israel, we aren't facing an enemy bent on our destruction... Nor are there any border-disputes with Mexico — the other complication of their project.
My eight year old would already recognize this rhetorical trick as one used only by crooks and liars. Your parents should not have allowed you access to the Internet until you've read up on classic literature...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Ocean chemistry is earth-like-- complete with all the plastic trash and oil and other debris?!
No, darling. That's not, how debating works. You make a claim, you substantiate it.
Sure, sure. That's one way to surrender. Not the most graceful, but acceptable.
Name-calling is less graceful — try to avoid that, if you do not want to be considered an asshole.
Ignorance of what exactly? Let's recap my statements:
You lost... Remember to logout.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
After they said only God could create organic compounds, the first organic compound synthesized was appropriately urea. That did not change their mind.
Pissing you off is funny. That's reason enough. Do you see that dark hole in the sky? It's not a black hole: it's mankind's collective anus, about to shit on you.
What if life actually started on Earth and found it's why to Europa due to meteor bombardment on Earth before the dinosaurs. Wouldn't you like to know if you have neighbours and if those neighbours are related?
Just remember that wifi that you most likely used to post your comment was created by Astronomers to do obscure star stuff, and it netted CSIRO 450$M of royalties, because it changed people's lives. http://www.theaustralian.com.a...
The internet itself was "something that won't change anyone's life" when it was built in the 1970's.
That is what basic science is all about. Discovery for curiosity's sake. If your child is dying of zika or malaria or ebola and a cure is found you might be grateful for the scientist who stumbled upon the answer by doing something completely different, or because they used software built by geologists or astronomers. Astronomy has also influenced cancer research, because software to identify stars can also be used to identify tumours. Astronomy is always valuable. New weather satellites that will better predict storms and flooding will save many lives in years to come.
The poor country Bolivia now has a satellite, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., which enables Andean farmers to communicate with each other and their markets - improving their personal income by helping them bypass expensive middle merchants.
I challenge you to compare your own country's research spending and compare it to spending on pet food or candy. You should be horrified at the result.