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Another heads-up: Surprising Activity on Europa


The Admiral

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2 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

Just spotted this NASA statement about surprising activity it has found using the Hubble telescope. It is apparently related to the presence of a sub-surface ocean.

All will be revealed next Monday (26th Sept)

Ian

Do you have a link Ian?

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From the people involved I'm guessing they have found one or more traces of an unexpected gas being emitted - the type of gas we find near ocean vents or something similar perhaps.  Something that wets the apetite but is probably totally natural and independent of life.

But I guess that analysing Europa from a distance (visual) and at the same time being able to go there (sampling) allows different analytical methods to be validated.   So even if it turns out not terribly exciting it could help refine methods used to analyse exo-planets and stars and indirectly move us forward in the I-Spy an alien :happy8:  I'm thinking that Europa passing infront of big old Jup must have similarities with an exo passing infront of its' star?  But then again I could be wrong :help:

But can't wait for the press conference.

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17 hours ago, Knighty2112 said:

Klaatu barada nikto! ;) 

From.    --                "The Day The Earth Stood Still"  Gort the Robot wasn't it?
I did enjoy that Movie. There is a remake, but I preferred the original with Michael Rennie as the visitor to Earth.

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A sub. surface ocean has long been suggested as likely on Europa.
No doubt a Probe, not dissimilar to the Huygens success that landed on Titan will 
be planned sometime in the future. Probing the Ice layer will be a task and a half,
as it is about 15 miles thick. the Moon is  about 480 million miles from the sun, so very little 
help from Sol. as an aid to melting a way through it :D.

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3 hours ago, barkis said:

From.    --                "The Day The Earth Stood Still"  Gort the Robot wasn't it?
I did enjoy that Movie. There is a remake, but I preferred the original with Michael Rennie as the visitor to Earth.

Yep. The original one with Michael Rennie, not the modern Keane Revees poor effort. ;) 

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4 hours ago, symesie04 said:

Sounds interesting but why do they that "some great new discoveries but well tell you all after the break"? Does even NASA feel that its all part of reality TV now?

 Yes, this has crept slowly into our news "programs", it's getting ridiculous.

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So a bit of a damp squid in the end.  Well not even a damp squid.  I understand confirmation of what we already were 99% sure of is very valuable but was it worth a press conference?

Makes you wonder what they would do if they did find a crashed saucer?

I'm probably being harsh of course.  NASA do great stuff and they share it openly with little o' me.  Much of it live or as close as possible to live.  And they gave me the greatest theatre of my life - no not the moon landing but Apollo 13.  So carry on guys - no real critisism meant.

As for Europa I guess we have to wait for a rocket to  go and have a sniff.  

 

ps:  Maybe we should have a poll:  Where will we first find signs of extraterrestial life?

a) Never:hmh: ,  Outside our solar system,  c) Inside our solar system

 

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That is perhaps being a bit harsh :icon_biggrin:. What I find interesting is that these supposed water plumes are around the south pole, if I understand correctly, on both Europa and Enceladus.

Life elsewhere? I'm sure there is. Will we find it outside the solar system? Even if life exists, distances are so vast I can't believe we'd be in position to detect it. Inside the solar system? May be, but I do know that with the sort of project timescales being toted, I can't imagine I'll still be around to find out! Sadly. That's not me being morbid, it's just reality.

Ian

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32 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

.......................... Will we find it outside the solar system? Even if life exists, distances are so vast

Ian back 30 years ago I predicted that space would go through a long boring period.  I mean we had been to most places near by and there is only so much you can do with lumps of rock and big bubbles of gas.  And the race to the moon was long over and Russia and the US seemed to have other things to spend money on.  I remember headlines like "Will we ever go back to the moon?".

How wrong could I be!  It seems that every month there are new finds based on unimaginable techniques.   Not only are we finding exo-planets but we can analyse the gas in their atmospheres.  And we can anaylse light from close to the big bang.  And we can monitor a billion stars all at once.   And now China, India, and others want to spend billions on grabbing the headlines.  But at the same time there is great collaboration between neighbours despite wars on earth.  And even as the EU falls apart we have European successes. 

And private companies are proving that space travel, with a bit of lateral thinking, doesn't need to cost an arm and a leg, just a leg.  Rock on SpaceX.  If nothing else they wil make building vaste telescopes in space and on the moon much cheaper.

So if I last another 15 years I'm quite optimistic.  ................................ OK you're probably right but I can dream and I feel there is real hope :headbang:

And of course it might be them that find us :hello2:

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Well you are right of course, though I was working on the basis that we wouldn't be able to prove the existence of life without actually visiting the place. If we ever find a way of doing that by remote sensing, then may be it would be possible, but for now, unless we detect the 'Archers' theme tune from some far off galaxy, I think it would be difficult. Even then, I suspect that theorists will be postulating that space-time is so warped we were just receiving our own transmissions!

It really all comes down to that Rumsfeld adage: " There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. :icon_biggrin:

Ian

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