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Plate tectonics found on Europa


Waspie_Dwarf

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Plate tectonics found on Europa

Discovery buoys bid for mission to Jovian moon.

If you have got an idea for how to study Europa, then NASA wants to hear from you.

The agency has no official plans for a mission to the Jovian moon, whose icy crust covers a watery ocean in which life could theoretically exist. But spurred by intense congressional interest and several recent discoveries, NASA is seeking ideas for instruments that could fly on a mission to Europa. The possibilities range from a stripped-down probe that would zip past the moon, to a carefully designed Jupiter orbiter that would explore Europa over many years.

The groundswell of enthusiasm is likely to be bolstered by the latest big news, reported on 7 September, that there may be giant plates of ice shuffling around on Europa - much as plates of rock do on Earth (S. A. Kattenhorn and L. M. Prockter Nature Geosci. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2245; 2014). Such active geology suggests that Europa's icy surface is connected to its buried ocean - creating a possible pathway for salts, minerals and maybe even microbes to get from the ocean to the surface and back again.

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NASA's article on the discovery:


Scientists Find Evidence of 'Diving' Tectonic Plates on Jupiter's Moon Europa

Scientists have found evidence of plate tectonics on Jupiter's moon Europa. This indicates the first sign of this type of surface-shifting geological activity on a world other than Earth.

Researchers have clear visual evidence of Europa’s icy crust expanding. However, they could not find areas where the old crust was destroyed to make room for the new. While examining Europa images taken by NASA's Galileo orbiter in the early 2000s, planetary geologists Simon Kattenhorn, of the University of Idaho, Moscow, and Louise Prockter, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, discovered some unusual geological boundaries.

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I suppose you could search these areas for upwellings which might contain organic molecules, the remains of bacteria-like life or even more advanced organisms, and while finding any alien life, even dead, on Europa would be exciting, it would be in rather poor condition given the extremes of radiation, temperature, grinding of the ice, etcetera. Dredging was once the only way we knew about the creatures of our own deep sea and most organisms were in bad shape by the time they reached the surface; some were so fragile they never made it that far. It has only been in the age of ROVs (and of course manned submersibles) that we see our own planets "alien" life while it is alive. It would still seem problematic to get a probe under the ice and into any liquid water environment, given the potential depth of the ice and the horrendously cold temperatures. Perhaps it's not realist to think we will be treated to the same visual documentary of Europe we have become accustomed to seeing on our TV within our lifetimes, but it's fun the think about.

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The biggest discovery would be the real cause of plate tectonics. It's still somewhat of an open question. Comprisons could be made between the two bodies to hint at an answer perhaps.

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  • 4 months later...

Whats your opinions on idea that plate tectonics were essential to the rise of life?

Hubble saw some giant geyser like plumes at Europa's south pole late in 2013 and there was talk of a fly through type of experiment to analyze them but the plumes seemingly disappeared and Hubble hasn't seen them again.

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Just imagine being the one to watch the vid. from the first submersible sent under the ice. :o What I wouldn't pay to be there. :)

That aside, I guess sooner or later the simplest (not the cheapest, sadly) way of deciding if there is life down there is to drill a hole through the ice and send some sort of robot-submarine down there. But what a hole that'll have to be. I've read sources that say the ice is only a couple hundred meters thick, to other's that claim it's 200 kilometres thick. 2 kilometres or so (if I remember right, i could be wrong) was the number that seemed most likely. Still... it is doable (in my honest opinion, not that i am an expert in this) if the funds were there right now. :)

I hope I live to see the day. Cheers.

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They flew through similar plumes on Enceladus, but didn't have the instruments to analyze them. At least, that's what I remember from a video I watched. I'll link to it if I find it. The Cassini mission? I'm thinking out loud here.

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