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There Could Be Massive Shards of Ice Sticking Out of Jupiter's Moon Europa (sciencealert.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sharp-as-a-tack dept.

According to a report published in the journal Nature Geoscience, Jupiter's Moon Europa may be home to a forest of tall, jagged ice spikes, which may complicate future missions looking for possible alien microbes. ScienceAlert reports: Few moons in the Solar System are as intriguing as Jupiter's moon Europa. A global ocean of salt water almost certainly surrounds the moon - and it holds more water than any ocean on Earth. Above this immense sea, where surface temperatures dip to minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit (-184 degrees Celsius), a crust of water ice forms a shell. Astronomers predict that Jupiter, which bombards the moon with intense radiation, causes the entire moon to groan with gravity's tug. Europa's liquid water is a tempting target for future missions looking for possible alien microbes. But before a future lander can search for microscopic ET, the probe might have to contend with a forest of tall, jagged ice spikes. Their research suggests Europa is an icy hedgehog world, covered in ice formations rarely found on Earth. On our planet, ice takes several forms, as varied as needle ice, rime, parking lot slush and more exotic lumps.

63 comments

  1. Except Europa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Attempt no landings there.

    1. Re:Except Europa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you would think that with all the video and images they show of europa, this wouldn't be a "might" or "scientists think". is everything nasa shows bullshit?

    2. Re:Except Europa by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      you would think that with all the video and images they show of europa, this wouldn't be a "might" or "scientists think". is everything nasa shows bullshit?

      Basically all the video and images you see of space, especially stuff like europa are artist impressions. Until they get there how do you think they can know the exact surface conditions. Galileo got within a couple hundred miles or something but that's still pretty far.

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    3. Re:Except Europa by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 2

      There is quite a lot of astronomy photography of Jupiter and its moons. I's difficult to get good, high precision images. Europe _spins_, with a period of roughly 3.55 Earth days. It's also quite distant, and near a much larger object that also reflects light, namely Jupiter. It could be very interesting to focus the Hubble Space Telescope on it to look for such structures. But how visible would they be from Earth orbit, even with the best optics?

    4. Re:Except Europa by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

      Europe _spins_, with a period of roughly 3.55 Earth days.

      Don't believe everything Nigel Farage says.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    5. Re:Except Europa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree -184C and intense radiation, look elsewhere.

    6. Re:Except Europa by thegreatbob · · Score: 1

      For want of mod points, I must give you kudos instead. Made me snort-laugh at work.

      --
      There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    7. Re:Except Europa by AlwinBarni · · Score: 4, Informative

      you would think that with all the video and images they show of europa, this wouldn't be a "might" or "scientists think". is everything nasa shows bullshit?

      No, just it's worth to read descriptions under the images, they say if it's an artist impression or an actual photo.

      For now humankind landed on (except Earth): Moon, Venus, Mars, asteroid Ryugu, asteroid Itokawa, comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and Saturn moon Titan, there were a few impactors, which I did not count, so any other pictures are taken from orbit sometimes just by flying by with a great speed, which makes any detail surface features not visible.

      So any images of exoplanets, black holes or any surface except the mentioned above are artists impressions. There is a project though to take an image of a black hole's event horizon.

    8. Re:Except Europa by vtcodger · · Score: 1

      Sounds like possibly a worthy target for the Magellan array being built in Chile. Ten times the resolution of Hubble. ... Assuming that it works of course.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    9. Re:Except Europa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It could be very interesting to focus the Hubble Space Telescope on it to look for such structures. But how visible would they be from Earth orbit, even with the best optics?

      Barely visible. You need to know the concept of *angular resolution*.

      Maybe this helps.

    10. Re:Except Europa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There is quite a lot of astronomy photography of Jupiter and its moons. I's difficult to get good, high precision images. Europe _spins_, with a period of roughly 3.55 Earth days. It's also quite distant, and near a much larger object that also reflects light, namely Jupiter. It could be very interesting to focus the Hubble Space Telescope on it to look for such structures. But how visible would they be from Earth orbit, even with the best optics?

      This is what Europa looks like in HST. That is, the top two images. The 3 images in the next row are Galileo images of Europa overlaid on a background captured by HST. You have to realize that all those awesome images of outer solar system bodies that we are all accustomed to, do not come from HST, they come from space probes, HST is several orders of magnitude worse.

    11. Re:Except Europa by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      It'll work, it's in Chile, they're industrious folks. Now, if it was in Brazil or Agentina, well - NO ONE works there...

      --
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  2. Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is of no concern to anyone. What I'm concerned about is that soon there'll be no outdoor ice anywhere on Earth.

    1. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol, omg, even if all the crap the Marxists are pushing about warming was true, do not worry your pretty little head over it, there would still be plenty of ice.

    2. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll pray for you and that you may recover your common sense one day.

    3. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't know about ice but there are too many stupid people outside

    4. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I like my whiskey dry so I don't care.

    5. Re:Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It is of no concern to anyone. What I'm concerned about is that soon there'll be no outdoor ice anywhere on Earth.

      Chicken Little called. He wants his OMFG! THE SKY IS FALLING (AGAIN! AND AGAIN!!!) meme back.

      And that's exactly why no one takes the fucking alarmists seriously any more.

      They've been "Chicken Littles" for the past 30 fucking years. Literally.

      The ever-receding "deadlines":

      1982, 20 years: "Mostafa Tolba, executive director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP), warned on May 11, 1982, that the “world faces an ecological disaster as final as nuclear war within a couple of decades unless governments act now.”"

      1989 - 10 years: "Noel Brown, the then-director of the New York office of UNEP was warning of a “10-year window of opportunity to solve” global warming. According to the Herald, “A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000."

      2007, 5 years: "Rajendra Pachauri, then the chief of the UN IPPC, declared 2012 the climate deadline by which it was imperative to act: “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”"

      The warmists have blown their credibility. DEAL WITH IT.

    6. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Marxists? Come on dude. It's the Reptillians attempting to consolodate financial power over governments before the public formation of the New World Order.

      Jewish Reptillians. Communist Jewish Reptillians probably.

    7. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Always had it. We have been coming out of the last ice age since before recorded history. Please stop being an ignorant fuck who learns everything from TV and read a real book from real historians or scientists. Hint: if they have given press quotes, showed up on tv, signed some UN document or taken part in some other partisan crap they are activists with an axe to grind, not academics.

      Real science follows the scientific method. Faux climate science does not and can not adhere to the SM.

      But you keep on keeping on with your ignorance and arrogance.

    8. Re:Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's an obvious solution.

      Just haul the ice from Europa to Earth.

      Of course, the deniers will say that there is no need, that climate change is just a hoax, and not want to fund a program like that. But we have to do whatever it takes for the cause. Even if it means sacrificing the village to save it, or breaking a few eggs to make the omelette.

      We must do better. This is our last, best hope.

    9. Re: Whatever by omnichad · · Score: 1

      And mankind is an ice age species. Let's not speed it up.

    10. Re:Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL, Elon Musk, knock yourself out on the Ambien, you're spouting bullshit again.

    11. Re: Whatever by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      And if a shill's saying it, it must be true.

    12. Re: Whatever by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      Lol, omg, even if all the crap the Marxists ...

      Does this contempt and calling names suppose to make your arguments stronger or is it just filling in the lack of substance?

    13. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Truth hurts when it hits home.

      Need a bandage?

    14. Re:Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2007, 5 years: "Rajendra Pachauri, then the chief of the UN IPPC, declared 2012 the climate deadline by which it was imperative to act: “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”"

      He was right. The window indeed closed in 2012. We have the climate totally screwed up now, and it's getting way worse. He was right.

      Take a look outside.

    15. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cool, we don't need to talk about it any more then. I'm sure we'll never see another story about it.

    16. Re: Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, sorry, I was trolling. I probably won't pray for you. Anyway, what books would you recommend?
      Would you trust NASA? They said here (https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/WorldOfChange/DecadalTemp) that the average temperature rose by 0.8 degrees Celsius since 1880, but two thirds of that since 1975. To simplify the math that would be 0.3 degrees in 100 years and another 0.5 in the next 40 years (if you do it right, the numbers just get worse).

      So, is there global warming? Yes. Denying that would need a world wide conspiration of scientist and data collectors.
      Is warming normal after an ice age? Certainly.
      Is the rate of warming since 1975 normal? It doesn't look like that, but is a sentiment and not science.
      How will the average temperature behave in the future? That is a very difficult question and there does not seem to be consensus about any prediction.
      Are rising temperatures bad? Probably yes, since it won't be endless summer, but droughts, wildfires, melting permafrost soil releasing methane, rising ocean levels, shifts of biomes, etc. Maybe mankind can cope, but it will be chaos for a while.

      So what can we do against rising temperatures? Don't be so bad to the environment. That might not help, if we are innocent in the rate of rise of temperature, but it would not hurt mankind as a whole. If there are countermeasures built into the climate system that we don't know of, climate might even stabilize.

      It is like a car driving towards a brick wall, but it is slowing down. You could hit the brakes (but it might already be too late) or you could hope that the car has a built-in brake assistant that you never have seen before or maybe the car will slow down on its own, so it won't even hit the wall.

    17. Re: Whatever by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      That was better, at least funny.

  3. LOL .. almost best headline ever ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Why oh why couldn't it be "Massive Shards of Ice Sticking Out of Uranus". :-P

    1. Re:LOL .. almost best headline ever ... by stealth_finger · · Score: 4, Funny

      Because Uranus is too gassy XD

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    2. Re:LOL .. almost best headline ever ... by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Oh, dear. You've reminded me of the Robert A. Heinlien story, "Gentlemen, Be Seated". Our heroes plugged a hole in the wall of the airlock by sitting on it. They nearly died of blood loss and hypothermia, but managed to survive.

    3. Re:LOL .. almost best headline ever ... by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Why oh why couldn't it be "Massive Shards of Ice Sticking Out of Uranus". :-P

      I'm not fooled... I don't think that is Ice sticking out of Uranus.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    4. Re:LOL .. almost best headline ever ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reminded me of last months news where a real astronaut plugged a hole in the wall by putting a finger over it.
      No damage occurred since it was a small hole and the difference between space and regular atmospheric pressure isn't that large.
      You only have to dive beneath 33 feet to get a larger pressure difference.

    5. Re:LOL .. almost best headline ever ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why oh why couldn't it be "Massive Shards of Ice Sticking Out of Uranus". :-P

      I did however see a headline on Google News earlier this year that read "Everyone Will Have a Lovely View of Uranus Tonight and They Won't Even Need a Telescope".

    6. Re:LOL .. almost best headline ever ... by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 1

      almost as delicious as the headline "New Tron Star Not Dense" I slow clapped that one.

      --
      Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
  4. Hedgehog World by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We know what to do. Send in the self-replicating robotic lawn mowers.

    1. Re: Hedgehog World by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Challenge accepted.

      -Sonic

  5. So basically.. by jawtheshark · · Score: 1

    So basically, it's a Minecraft Ice Spikes biome?

    --
    Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
  6. Deathmatch by kackle · · Score: 2

    "...exotic lumps."

    And I have my new deathmatch name.

    1. Re:Deathmatch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Personally I'm glad they described the forms that ice takes on this planet, I wouldn't have had any way to know otherwise.

  7. DUH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Duh!

    We've seen that in the pictures, we've known this for years. Tell us something exciting that we don't already know.

  8. Nuke it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Detonate a nuke on the surface. No more ice.

  9. Wait, what? by tsqr · · Score: 2

    From TFA: On Earth, the sublimation of massive ice deposits at equatorial latitudes under cold and dry conditions in the absence of any liquid melt leads to the formation of spiked and bladed textures eroded into the surface of the ice.

    That sounds like something that's going on today, but AFAIK, the last time the Earth's equatorial latitudes were the sites of "massive ice deposits" was about 700 million years ago.

    1. Re:Wait, what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How did you manage to simultaneously read the article and totally miss the picture of penitentes forming in Chile and all of the paragraphs indicating that, yes, they do form on present-day Earth on the highest peaks of the Andes?

    2. Re:Wait, what? by Ranbot · · Score: 1

      Alpine glaciers near the equator, like those in the Andes Mountains of South America (as mentioned by the article).

  10. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So we've been told!

  11. We were told about this... by dasunt · · Score: 2

    "All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings here."

    1. Re:We were told about this... by Tablizer · · Score: 0

      It's spikey monoliths all the way down. (Please, no microservices jokes.)

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  12. Give it back! by BlackOverflow · · Score: 1

    The Europaeans stole our ice and we want it back!

  13. Could be.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well there could be massive shards of ice sticking out of Uranus

  14. *Surrounds* the moon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I do not think it means what you think it means

    Planned mission in 2020? oh, unmanned. The aliens get to go first. Damn.

  15. Icy Hedgehog? by Photonmaker · · Score: 1

    Good name for a rock band

  16. So by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

    The first vessel to discover America was from Europe, and the first probe to visit Europa was from America. It's a draw.

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    1. Re:So by MooseTick · · Score: 1

      "The first vessel to discover America was from Europe"

      Wouldn't it likely be form Asia since there was that land bridge 20000 years ago. I'd presume someone in that group used a vessel of some sort.

      --
      Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
    2. Re:So by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, it's a land bridge, of course they drove there.

  17. Re:Deathmatch ["exotic lumps"] by Tablizer · · Score: 0

    When you're a star, they let you grab exotic lumps.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  18. Could be localized shards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    However I doubt this terrain is found Europa-wide, or even commonly.

    That's how it is on Earth. There are locations where shards of various materials can be found (rock, ice), but it is localized and rather rare, actually. Of course Earth has an atmosphere, a water cycle and weather. Without those things this terrain could be more common on Europa than they are on Earth.

    Still doesn't mean the entire moon is covered in spikes though.

    1. Re:Could be localized shards by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      The article very specifically states that only equatorial conditions would allow large shards, leaving the rest of the moon free of them.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
  19. Define 'massive' by schwit1 · · Score: 2

    'Massive' is a subjective description. 1 meter, 100 meters, 1 kilometer?

  20. Images of black hole by DrYak · · Score: 1

    So any images of exoplanets, black holes or any surface except the mentioned above are artists impressions.

    Well, technically, due to how physics work, it will never be possible to make an image of a black hole. There's no such thing existing.

    What you could take pictures of is the gavitational lensing (Einstein ring) caused by the presence of a black hole (well, that peculiar photo is a super-massive black hole AND all the surrounding galaxy at the core of which said hole sits, causing the photograph-able mirage together. But you got the idea).

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    1. Re:Images of black hole by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      So any images of exoplanets, black holes or any surface except the mentioned above are artists impressions.

      Well, technically, due to how physics work, it will never be possible to make an image ...

      Of course, yet there are "images" online, hence mentioned.