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posted by hubie on Friday September 30 2022, @03:55PM   Printer-friendly

"We are screaming by pretty fast":

On Thursday morning, NASA's Juno spacecraft swooped down to within 358 km of the surface of Europa, the large, ice-encrusted Moon that orbits Jupiter.

This flyby will provide humanity its closest look at Europa since the Galileo mission made several close flybys more than two decades ago. However, the Juno spacecraft will carry a more powerful suite of instruments and a far more capable camera than Galileo. So this should be our best look yet at the intriguing world.

[...] Scientists have long been curious about Europa, which is covered in ice but believed to have a vast ocean beneath the surface due to the moon's warm core. There is probably more liquid water in Europa's global ocean than exists on Earth, planetary scientists think. While the ice sheet is believed to be several kilometers thick, the Hubble Space Telescope has collected data that indicates geysers may be periodically ejected through cracks in this ice. Given the presence of water and heat, this ocean is considered to be a potential reservoir for microbic alien life.

[...] The visual imagery and scientific data will help inform NASA scientists who are completing assembly of the Europa Clipper, a large spacecraft due to launch in 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket. This mission will be dedicated to the study of the Moon, arriving in 2030 and performing more than 50 flybys at close range to gather data. Eventually the space agency would like to send a lander but wants to obtain data from the flyby missions first to assess the best location for landing, potentially near a water vapor plume, if they really exist.

3:25pm ET Update: A few hours after Juno's flyby, the spacecraft started sending data back to Earth. NASA has published the first of these processed photos, which shows a region near the moon's equator called Annwn Regio. The data in this photo was collected at a distance of 352 km above the moon, the point of closest approach during this flyby.

Plenty of rugged terrain is visible in this image, including dark ridges and troughs across the surface. The oblong pit near the terminator might be a degraded impact crater, NASA says.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2022, @05:14PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2022, @05:14PM (#1274357)

    > There is probably more liquid water in Europa's global ocean than exists on Earth, planetary scientists think.

    If we were to fund billionaires to send enough space missions to Europa and scoop up some of that water, we could solve the drought problem here on Earth.

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by Thexalon on Friday September 30 2022, @05:33PM (1 child)

      by Thexalon (636) on Friday September 30 2022, @05:33PM (#1274360)

      If we were to fund billionaires to send enough space missions to Europa and scoop up some of that water, we could solve the drought problem here on Earth.

      1. They're billionaires. Why do we need to fund them? I thought the whole point of having billionaires, at least according to their defenders, was that they would have the money to pour into very speculative ventures.

      2. Get a new source of fresh water, you induce more demand, leading to more being needed (see: Pretty much the entire American southwest). Running into a problem best highlighted by Futurama:
      Announcer: "And each year, we simply collect more of that water to pour into agriculture, thus solving the problem once and for all."
      Little girl: "But ..."
      Announcer: "ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2022, @07:08PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2022, @07:08PM (#1274370)

        1. They're billionaires. Why do we need to fund them? I thought the whole point of having billionaires, at least according to their defenders, was that they would have the money to pour into very speculative ventures.

        It's creates jobs, son. Hand over the check.

        2. Get a new source of fresh water, you induce more demand, leading to more being needed (see: Pretty much the entire American southwest). Running into a problem best highlighted by Futurama:
        Announcer: "And each year, we simply collect more of that water to pour into agriculture, thus solving the problem once and for all."
        Little girl: "But ..."
        Announcer: "ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

        Why you dirty commie bastard...!

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday September 30 2022, @05:34PM (1 child)

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 30 2022, @05:34PM (#1274361) Homepage Journal

      There's enough water on Earth to deal with drought. The problem is to get it out of the oceans.

      Oh, wait a but. We could just let Antarctica melt instead. Lots of coastal dry lands will have all the water they need!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2022, @07:04PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2022, @07:04PM (#1274369)

        What about the billionaire's flights Europa though?

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Michael on Friday September 30 2022, @10:45PM (3 children)

      by Michael (7157) on Friday September 30 2022, @10:45PM (#1274382)

      Presumably this is sarcasm or flame bait, but in case you genuinely are on crack:

      To solve the "drought problem";

      1) Stop calling it a drought in places where that's normal, and stop growing thirsty crops there (looking at your 1 gallon per almond shenanigans california).

      2) Stop giving out blank cheque licenses for corporations to pllage aquifers in places where the population hasn't got enough water (if it's such a great business model they can buy the water at market rate).

      3) Stop letting the infrastructure collapse and leak to divert the money to yachts for ceos (50% efficiency should get you told to go fuck yourself, not a bonus).

      4) Stop replacing the vegetation which holds rain in the earth with cement which swiftly diverts it to storm drains.

      5) Stop planting lawns everywhere.

      5) Start requiring efficient use and reprocessing in industry.

      6) Start building atomic reactors to power desalination

      7) Start subsidising urban rainwater catchment for toilet flushing and storage for summer irrigation.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2022, @04:03AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2022, @04:03AM (#1274406)

        Simple question to ask for each of your proposed policies. "Who's going to get rich(er) off this?"
        If you can't point to a small group of already powerful people it's not going to happen.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2022, @04:59AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2022, @04:59AM (#1274418)

          Maybe if we throw in a football stadium or two, we can get some things we want too in trickle-downs.

        • (Score: 2) by Michael on Saturday October 01 2022, @12:16PM

          by Michael (7157) on Saturday October 01 2022, @12:16PM (#1274442)

          Politicians, initially. Or at least they would increase their potential for future profit if the proposed changes are popular enough to get them elected to a better office than they currently held.

          Then once implementation began it would be any business competitors of the current wasteful status quo, and any suppliers of technology and materiel required to implement.

          Same as it was for the horse and cart versus the automobile. Same as it always is.

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