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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 doesn't change anyone's life. This is research that doesn't matter. Nobody is going to be living on or below the frozen surface of a Jovian moon. Can anyone explain how this research impacts anyone in any substantial way, minus the researchers who are mooching on taxpayer money? I don't expect any serious answers because Slashdot users are incapable of real discussion. Instead, I'll be censored to -1 by moderators, who would rather pretend the question doesn't exist rather than offer legitimate answers. Can anyone provide a real answer to the question? I doubt it.
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.
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!”
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.
It also could be made of marshmallow.
Compton's Nigger Chemistry Could Be Feces-Like
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.
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.
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.
it hasn't been overfished
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.