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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.

10 of 63 comments (clear)

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

    Attempt no landings there.

    1. 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?

    2. 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."
    3. 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.

  2. 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

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  3. Deathmatch by kackle · · Score: 2

    "...exotic lumps."

    And I have my new deathmatch name.

  4. 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.

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

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

  6. Define 'massive' by schwit1 · · Score: 2

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