Ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa may harbor 3 mn tons of fish

In a new research, a scientist has suggested that at least three million tons of fishlike creatures could theoretically live and breathe under Jupiter’s moon Europa’s global ocean.

Below its icy crust, Europa is believed to host a global ocean up to a hundred miles (160 kilometers) deep, with no land to speak of at the surface.

I don't know about this but thought I'd share.It's a cool site.
www.phenomenica.com...

[edit on 18-11-2009 by genius/idoit]

[edit on 18-11-2009 by genius/idoit]

Very interesting.

Even if there are no life forms, if it can sustain life, whose to say that someday some huge corporation wont use the planet as a large fishery?

Nice find!

Where's my fishing pole?

We need to crash land a net into the sea there and bring some fish back.

Well if we do that to another planet... then we deserve to have it done to us.

All of those people who thinks it ok to fly around the universe killing, eating, and enslaving the indiginous life deserves to have that as their life and death.

Very interesting. I'd really like to have a look at Richard Greenburg's study and data.

From the link:

The extraterrestrial ocean is currently being fed more than a hundred times more oxygen than previous models had suggested, according to provocative new research.

That amount of oxygen would be enough to support more than just microscopic life-forms, and at least three million tons of fishlike creatures could theoretically live and breathe on Europa, according to Greenberg.

and

This cycle of “repaving” would explain the young look of the surface ice—and would open the door for oxygen at the surface to permeate the subsurface ocean

I wonder if that might also imply the possibility of an atmosphere?

[edit on 18/11/09 by argentus]

I am hoping for salmon as big as a house. Anyone know the water temperature on Europa?

maybe that moon is a frozen piece of Tiamat ? The water planet ?
I saw the 'destruction of atlantis' and Tsarion said (dont mean I belive him) that Tiamat was a water planet, and think of all the sea life it had to be on that planet, and I dont know if any of you have heard the story about 'raining fish from the sky' some decades ago, I dont remember where or when , but, Tsarion speculates that could have come from frozen 'ocean ice cubes' that melted on its entery to earth..

Anyways, great news about the fish up there, we can go there and fish when we have drained out own oceans ..

this is something else i have read about it.

Drilling Down to Alien Oceans

Some of the most interesting places in our solar system are also the most difficult to reach. Areas hidden under thick layers of ice such as the polar caps of Mars, Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa are prime examples. Drilling through ice on Earth is complicated enough, but on another world the task becomes almost impossible.

euro.astrobio.net...

i remember watching an episode of the universe (i think it was) on this subject as well.

drilling through the ice and using a rover with artificial intelligence to look around on its own. it would be too far away for us to try and control it.

would be interesting to see what is down there. id be scared to let something out lol

reply to post by ChemBreather


Interesting theory Chembreather. Although I think that the fish raining from the sky is usually the result of typhoons picking them up from the surface and traveling them with wind. However, I could be wrong.

In any case this is a wonderful discovery and could make for very big expeditions by sattelites or manned aircraft in the future to such places to investigate.

I wonder if they have ever created a rover which would be used specifically for under water research. I'm sure it could be done.

~Keeper

I am going to go out on a limb and say it is inhabited by none other than the Crab People. Look like crab, talk like people. Crab People, Crab People.

reply to post by ChemBreather


Isnt Tiamat the ancient Sumerian destruction dragon?

and also a crappy death metal band.

Originally posted by Wertdagf
Well if we do that to another planet... then we deserve to have it done to us.

All of those people who thinks it ok to fly around the universe killing, eating, and enslaving the indiginous life deserves to have that as their life and death.

Humans are part of nature weather you like it or not. What we do to this world and the universe IS natural. Lions eat lesser animals and so do humans. Do you think its ok for lions to eat deer?

Humanity is part of Nature the good and the bad.

I assume they're basing that number of creatures on Earth-based life? How can we possibly even put a number on something like that when we have absolutely no idea what could be down there. If all they're saying is "if Earth-based creatures were to live there, there could be 3 million tons of them," then what does that mean? They're obviously not Earth-based creatures, they could use silicon instead of carbon for all we know. Not to mention what the effects of different gravity might be on density and development of creatures. And how many times has NASA been "shocked" or "completely amazed" by what they've found that they didn't expect?

reply to post by genius/idoit


Bumper sticker on nuclear powered ship heading there to harvest Europa life:

"GONE FISSION!"


OOOOOOOOOHHHH! - bu-bum-CHA!
(thanks I'm here all millennia.


-

..... don't squid get a mention ?

YUM .....


Oh , and fish raining from the sky ... ?


..... excess production , .... dumped . !

reply to post by BillyumH

I am going to go out on a limb and say it is inhabited by none other than the Crab People. Look like crab, talk like people. Crab People, Crab People.

I like your theory, since the soldier crab (common land crab) is one of my totems. It's not so far-fetched to imagine that a civilization might spring from a planet which was completely underwater.

I would imagine that there is life there. Almost without a doubt, in my mind.

However, like someone else said, this is only an indication of how well Earth-based lifeforms would do there.

In the real world, it is probably much different than what is estimated.
But still a very interesting prospect.

reply to post by argentus


I recall reading somewhere that - at least to some scientists - it is unlikely that civilization could spring from an aquatic environment because of the limitation of no way to harness fire....

But then, scientists have always had a bad habit of finding it impossible to imagine something they simply can't explain.

As for NASA... well ... almost every time we learn something new - they're astounded.... because we all know they want to maintain that brand image of knowing everything.

This has sparked off a weird train of thought for me. There's theories about a humanoid reptilian race in various circles, from Annunaki to The Queen Mum, and talk of an older, more advanced race on Mars, whose remnants we see as pyramids and sphinx faces on the surface, and now we have an ocean environment where fish are the top of the food chain.

It instantly made me think of the Star Trek Enterprise race, the Xindi. They were all essentially the same race, and had evolved on the same planet, but in distinct racial types, mammalian, reptilian, insectoid, aquatic and avian. What if we extend it out to a solar system rather than a single planet, could we have distinct variations of humanity, expressed in different variations of evolutionary track?

I find these scientists quite amusing, they never cease to come up with far fetched ideas that nobody else can argue against because the scientist is the only person with any knowledge about the subject.

I think it must happen somewhere round about when their funding is due for review, they must panic and think god I've been at this for 10 years now and not come up withthing remotely interesting. So I'll just make some bs story up about something and hopefully it will be enough to save my ass.

I often ask the question, what do these guys actually do on a daily basis.