NASA to Announce 'Surprising' Europa Discovery Monday

Is this just hype or could this be an announcement related to life?

NASA will announce new findings about Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa during a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday (Sept. 26).

"Astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa," NASA officials wrote in a media advisory Tuesday (Sept. 20).

www.space.com...

The internet is buzzing that this "suprising activity" could be related to life.

a reply to: neoholographic

Great news! This news just made my day!

This is great but I won't be holding my breath. . As always with these a announcements they tend to be a bit of an anti climax..

General rule of thumb when it comes to NASA announcements: Curb your enthusiasm.

It will be something about chemical composition being favorable for life. Lots of qualifiers, ifs, maybes and possibly's.

a reply to: neoholographic

It may be that they've discovered something in the plumes of water vapour being ejected from Europa , maybe something indicating biology.

They'll problaly announce that Europa is experiencing something similar to Earths' global warming and were to blame

originally posted by: Syphon
General rule of thumb when it comes to NASA announcements: Curb your enthusiasm.

It will be something about chemical composition being favorable for life. Lots of qualifiers, ifs, maybes and possibly's.

True.....NASA builds you up with excitement only to let you down with the usual possibly, could be, maybe, etc....I hold out the hope that this time is different.

originally posted by: lostbook

originally posted by: Syphon
General rule of thumb when it comes to NASA announcements: Curb your enthusiasm.

It will be something about chemical composition being favorable for life. Lots of qualifiers, ifs, maybes and possibly's.

True.....NASA builds you up with excitement only to let you down with the usual possibly, could be, maybe, etc....I hold out the hope that this time is different.

It's the media and people reacting to NASA's media conference announcements that build up the excitement, not NASA. People love to jump to conclusions and put words in NASA's mouth.

The words and phrasing NASA uses to announce their media conferences are usually pretty matter-of-fact; they usually don't use too many excitement-inducing words and phrase.

Having said that, most of the announcements coming from NASA are in fact damn exciting and interesting to science, even if the average person finds it unremarkable.

originally posted by: cactusman23
They'll problaly announce that Europa is experiencing something similar to Earths' global warming and were to blame

Probably not but ignoring the effect we have on our own planet is stupid.

originally posted by: neoholographic
Is this just hype or could this be an announcement related to life?

NASA will announce new findings about Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa during a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday (Sept. 26).

"Astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa," NASA officials wrote in a media advisory Tuesday (Sept. 20).

www.space.com...

The internet is buzzing that this "suprising activity" could be related to life.

I thought we promised to attempt no landings there?

a reply to: neoholographic

I will have a guess!

I imagine they have seen iceblocks moving, indicating liquid currents underneath.

That is my guess, if I am right I will win the internet, right?

I don't know whether it's NASA or the media or both, but yeah NASA discoveries tend to be wildly over-hyped. It's likely to be something that's scientifically interesting, but really not a big deal to the average person.

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan
I don't know whether it's NASA or the media or both, but yeah NASA discoveries tend to be wildly over-hyped. It's likely to be something that's scientifically interesting, but really not a big deal to the average person.

I'll go with "people", because NASA only makes the original announcement of an upcoming media conference just once using relatively low-key language, and then they stop.

They don't continue with any additional "hype" after the original announcement of the media conference. Additional speculation after that about what specifically will be the subject of the media conference comes from other sources (such as discussion here on ATS), not NASA.

Why keep us waiting? What are they formulating?

NASA" - We have received a message :
"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE"

(2001 a Space Odyssey )

originally posted by: halo0verhorns
Why keep us waiting? What are they formulating?

Should they just spring a media conference on everyone unannounced? Or should they schedule one with enough time for the media to make arrangements to cover it?

NASA holds these media conferences semi-regularly (maybe about one per month or so?) to keep the public informed about the research and missions they are doing, and they usually give the media a little warning in order for them to be able to cover it.

Granted, if it were history-changing and world-changing news, then maybe it would be scheduled much more quickly, and the major news outlets would be covering it. But these semi-regular media conferences are generally not about history-changing news (albeit still scientifically interesting).

originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: neoholographic

Great news! This news just made my day!

I can't wait to hear it either.

Speculation is a good thing. People's thoughts aren't confined and this is when the best discoveries occur.

It's just NASA being NASA. They have to be announcing some kind of "exciting possibility" at least once a month to justify their funding and existence. They've been doing this trick for as long as I can remember. Although they've gotten more brazen in recent years with announcing things that sound more exciting than they are.


It used to be that just announcing that a comet was going to hit Jupiter was cool enough to get people interested and excited.

originally posted by: BrianFlanders
It's just NASA being NASA. They have to be announcing some kind of "exciting possibility" at least once a month to justify their funding and existence. They've been doing this trick for as long as I can remember. Although they've gotten more brazen in recent years with announcing things that sound more exciting than they are.


It used to be that just announcing that a comet was going to hit Jupiter was cool enough to get people interested and excited.

You're kidding, right?

Did no one read Soyents posts? YOU are the one over-hyping things. They announced a discovery, and undoubtedly it will be scientifically interesting.

But since they most likely will not announce they have found little green men on Europa, you will say it was all a big build up for nothing.

Ps. Why on earth is it the first thing we assume is it may be relating to life? You are working yourselves up, not NASA.

Hydrothermal vents on Europa would cool. On Earth vents are teeming with life, regardless of whether the water is acidic or alkaline - doesn't matter.