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NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

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Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#61
post #59
post #14

This is obviously a ginormous leap from this announcement and just a tangent sparked by it. The possibility of intelligent life developing on a world like Europa encrusted with what is effectively a miles think solid atmosphere has always been one of my favorite feasible sci-fi hypotheticals. Could you imagine how that would impact their culture? Would they even know there is anything on the other side of the ice? Th…

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Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#62

Europa is definitely the most exciting part of the solar system that sparks imagination. Literally 100s of miles of pitch black ocean with thermal vents, ripe for life. Getting kiddy thinking about the leviathan sized aliens roaming the deep ocean of Europa. Does anyone else feel this way?

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Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#63
post #60

Europa is definitely the most exciting part of the solar system that sparks imagination. Literally 100s of miles of pitch black ocean with thermal vents, ripe for life. Getting kiddy thinking about the leviathan sized aliens roaming the deep ocean of Europa. Does anyone else feel this way?

Well technically they would just be Europeans.

Technically, they’d be Europans. ;p

Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#64
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to dig, you just melt yourself downwards. It's not exactly like digging through rocks on Earth.

Would liquid pool up as you melt the ice? I guess you'd need to pump it out. Is that even possible at that depth? The liquid might boil on the way up.

Your craft is denser than the liquid, so you just kinda drop through it and keep melting.

Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#65

Europa is definitely the most exciting part of the solar system that sparks imagination. Literally 100s of miles of pitch black ocean with thermal vents, ripe for life. Getting kiddy thinking about the leviathan sized aliens roaming the deep ocean of Europa. Does anyone else feel this way?

From an Arthur C. Clarke novel:

> ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA.

> ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.

So yes. Clarke thought it was special also.

Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#66
post #25

“All these worlds are yours - except Europa. Attempt no landing there.” You have been warned guys… ;)

Honestly, the only thing I wish to see before I die is a submarine mission to Europa or Ganymede. It would be even more mind blowing and an amazing achievement for humanity, and the search for extraterrestrial life. That, and the dragonfly-helicopter-thing on Titan. Have you ever seen the Sun set on a methane lake? It's time for a rewatch of Europa Report (2013).

A Europa submarine mission is a good bucket list, but don't sell us too short.

* Humans on Mars * Room temperature Superconductors and their effects on humanity. * Sustained Fusion Power for the masses. * General Artificial Intelligence * Human brain-computer interface. * Full reversal of climate change. * Extended human lifespan. * Curing all forms of cancer. * Universal translator for all human languages. * Discovery of extraterrestrial intelligent life. * Understanding dark energy and dark matter. * A true virtual reality, indistinguishable from reality. * 100% renewable energy global infrastructure. * Establishing a lunar base. * Sentient AI companions. * Discovering the origin of life.

If you elect me, I will make all these come true!

Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's less clear than I'd expected. Is that image deliberately downscaled so as to not reveal the true capabilities of the telescope optics?

No, they're quite open about the capabilities of the optics (see https://webb.nasa.gov/content/forScientists/faqScientists.ht... ). It's just that Europa is very far away. Webb's mirror system has an angular resolution of about 0.1 arcseconds. Earth is currently about 630 million km from Europa (Webb is only 1.5 million km away from earth). Because the sine of theta is approximately equal to theta for values of theta…

For the conspiracy theorists: this is the same reason why we can't just point Webb at the moon and get pictures of the lunar landing sites. In terms of arcseconds of the Webb's FOV, the moon landing site is much smaller than these distant galaxies (which blows my mind just how big those distant "objects" are).

Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#68
post #31
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to dig, you just melt yourself downwards. It's not exactly like digging through rocks on Earth.

Of course, barring collapse, the rocks won’t reform right above you as you go.

I wonder if one can apply some heat to the cable or wire dropping you down, and thus create a more open conduit.

Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's less clear than I'd expected. Is that image deliberately downscaled so as to not reveal the true capabilities of the telescope optics?

No, they're quite open about the capabilities of the optics (see https://webb.nasa.gov/content/forScientists/faqScientists.ht... ). It's just that Europa is very far away. Webb's mirror system has an angular resolution of about 0.1 arcseconds. Earth is currently about 630 million km from Europa (Webb is only 1.5 million km away from earth). Because the sine of theta is approximately equal to theta for values of theta…

Thanks for the detailed comment, that is incredibly helpful info.

Re: NASA’s Webb finds carbon source on surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they're quite open about the capabilities of the optics (see https://webb.nasa.gov/content/forScientists/faqScientists.ht... ). It's just that Europa is very far away. Webb's mirror system has an angular resolution of about 0.1 arcseconds. Earth is currently about 630 million km from Europa (Webb is only 1.5 million km away from earth). Because the sine of theta is approximately equal to theta for values of theta…

For the conspiracy theorists: this is the same reason why we can't just point Webb at the moon and get pictures of the lunar landing sites. In terms of arcseconds of the Webb's FOV, the moon landing site is much smaller than these distant galaxies (which blows my mind just how big those distant "objects" are).

We can image the lunar landing sites with lunar orbiters, though. Footsteps and all!

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.htm...

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