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

webbtelescope.org

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

#91

Post by dmix »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #88
dmix wrote: post #87

> a fascinating world with a salty, subsurface ocean of liquid water—possibly twice as much as in all of Earth’s oceans combined. If we brought water back a container of water from Europa would this be the largest amount of new water entering the earth since planets struck it billions of years ago? I briefly googled it (I dont know much about this stuff tbh): > The water on our Earth today is the same water that’s be…

Comets do fall from time to time, and Earth collects 5000 tons of debri from space each year. So I imagine Earth does gain a few tons of water from time to time.

Oh good point, I didn't think about Comets.

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

#92

Post by throw_pm23 »

mikeInAlaska wrote: post #66
sph wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. * Discove…

About half of these I don't care for, but the submarine mission would be cool.

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

#93

Post by wantoncl »

Larrikin wrote: post #15
SoftTalker wrote: post #9

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?

Is this post trying to imply they found aliens and are hiding them?

No, just some black monoliths on the surface ;)

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

#94

Post by wishfish »

monlockandkey wrote: post #21

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?

Don't forget about Enceladus. Also a massive ocean with the added benefit of shooting enormous geysers into space. Would be wonderful if our solar system had at least 3 worlds with ocean life.

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/enceladus

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

#96

Post by XorNot »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #65
monlockandkey wrote: post #21

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.

It's also one of my favorite sequences in the 2010 movie of Space Odessey series (which IMO, works a lot better as an actual movie pacing wise). Just something about the tension gets captured really well there, without their being any sort of actual threat (since it's a robotic probe).

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

#97

Post by andrewflnr »

lisper wrote: post #54
yakz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you have leviathan sized animals with no phytoplankton? Seems like thermal vents would provide a lot less energy than the Sun, but I’m really out of my depth.

> Could you have leviathan sized animals with no phytoplankton? Yes. See e.g.: https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/how-giant... These aren't "leviathan-sized" but they could easily provide food for something that big. The base of this food chain would be chemosynthetic bacteria. After that, energy is not the limiting factor on size.

Broadly, yes, but chemosynthetic organisms tend to be benthic (afaict, IANA marine microbiologist), so they can stay close to their food source. So something big that feeds on them would probably be a grazer more than a swimmer. Unless, perhaps, they need to swim between vent sites or something...

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

#99

Post by harph »

ijidak wrote: post #98

Why does one random Jovian moon have so much water? And why not all similarly sized rocky bodies in the solar system? Isn't this even stranger than Earth's water?

There's also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus so it's not just one random moon.

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

#100

Post by andrewflnr »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #65
monlockandkey wrote: post #21

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.

Funny that the Clipper probe is still only flying by, attempting no landing.
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