Do the Oceans of Jupiter's Europa Harbor Life? (VIDEO), page 1

October 12, 2009
A Great Debate: Do the Oceans of Jupiter's Europa Harbor Life? (VIDEO)

Europa's ice ocean is the most interesting extra-terrestrial cocktail outside of the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster: an entire world of water and heat. It could only be more exobiologically interesting if we detected Vulcans. Active controversy fuels spirited research into this incredible environment, with one theory explaining how the ice shell coating the planet could be pumping the ocean full of oxygen

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If Europa is nothing but water and heat my question would be with such intense heat how does the water exist?

[edit on 13-10-2009 by Aquarius1]

reply to post by Aquarius1

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Europa is not "nothing but water". There is a solid rocky moon under all of the water. Nobody is sure how deep the ocean is, but it is probably at least several km deep.

The water is kept liquid due to "tidal forces" caused by Jupiter pushing, pulling and squeezing Europa. The friction caused by the pulling and squeezing may be enough to heat up the rocky part of the moon for the water to remain liquid, but it wouldn't necessarily be so hot that the water could not exist.

EDIT: MrVertigo beat me to the gravity/tidal forces explanation.


[edit on 10/13/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

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Thank you, not that familiar with Europa but him learning.

reply to post by MrVertigo

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Thanks, I own "2010" by Arthur C Clarke, have not gotten around to reading it yet, too many books, too little time but I will in the next few months..

reply to post by Aquarius1

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You should also read 2061: Odyssey Three, which is also by Arthur C. Clark. Its story mostly involves Europa and life there.

While (in my opinion) the book itself isn't as good as 2010: Odyssey Two, it's still a good read.


[edit on 10/14/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
reply to post by Aquarius1

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You should also read 2061: Odyssey Three, which is also by Arthur C. Clark. Its story mostly involves Europa and life there.

While (in my opinion) the book itself isn't as good as 2010: Odyssey Two, it's still a good read.


[edit on 10/14/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

Will look into it, my book budget for this month is gone, have to stop doing this..

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People

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I recently saw 2001: A Space Odyssey again, it is still an amazing movie, not like the first time I saw at Cinerama and you honestly felt like you were there, TV just doesn't do it for these types of movies.

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