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posted by martyb on Monday September 26 2016, @11:01AM   Printer-friendly
from the mark-your-calendar dept.

Watch here: http://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

NASA Teleconference About Europa

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-hold-media-call-on-evidence-of-surprising-activity-on-europa

NASA will host a teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 26, to present new findings from images captured by the agency's Hubble Space Telescope of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa.

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 currently plans to perform additional flybys of Europa and put a lander on the surface as part of the Europa Clipper mission. The ESA's Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer will also fly by Europa twice, but focus on Ganymede.

Nasa to Reveal 'Surprising' Activity On Jupiter's Moon Europa

There's something going on beneath the surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. But what?

NASA teased a "surprising" announcement for Monday, based on Hubble Space Telescope images of the celestial body, which many experts believe could contain a subsurface ocean, even possibly some form of life.

The US space agency has already proclaimed that Europa has "strong evidence for an ocean of liquid water beneath its crust and which could host conditions favorable for life."

At Monday's announcement, "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," it said in a statement.

The announcement will be made at a news conference at 2 pm (1800 GMT) Monday featuring Paul Hertz, NASA's director of astrophysics, and William Sparks, an astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 26 2016, @01:56PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday September 26 2016, @01:56PM (#406642) Journal

    It was already accepted that Europa probably has a subsurface ocean. I doubt that life could be spotted under Europa's crust from space, although if there are gases escaping, maybe that would be their evidence. So I guess they are going to announce new measurements of the size of the ocean or intentions to drill through the crust and insert a robotic submarine. That's a mission that would probably require an RTG... solar won't cut it. They will also talk about the 2022 Europa Clipper mission.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 26 2016, @04:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 26 2016, @04:12PM (#406684)

    intentions to drill through the crust and insert a robotic submarine.

    Oh, ah, yah, space-bot porn...

    [smoke cigar]

    Soylent should really carry an age warning.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bucc5062 on Monday September 26 2016, @06:19PM

    by bucc5062 (699) on Monday September 26 2016, @06:19PM (#406712)

    I remember reading that NASA was very very concerned about having curiosity dip its toes in some water path for fear of contamination from earth born creepy crawlies. Seems not everything onboard was sterilized.

    Should we not have the same concern in something that may have much more rich opportunity for life (and growth). I would hope we could start with passive methods of observation before taking a risk of infecting a unique environment.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 27 2016, @03:12AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 27 2016, @03:12AM (#406832)

      Curiosity was not designed to contact liquids and was thus not sterilized sufficiently for that. A probe designed to touch liquid or potential liquid would need to be better sterilized, such as "baked" longer and hotter. Doing that is costly, though, because it complicates electronics and internal chemistry labs, being they have to withstand more heat.