Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Galileo's Europa Remastered

NASA ^ | November 27, 2014 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Looping through the Jovian system in the late 1990s, the Galileo spacecraft recorded stunning views of Europa and uncovered evidence that the moon's icy surface likely hides a deep, global ocean. Galileo's Europa image data has been newly remastered here, using improved new calibrations to produce a color image approximating what the human eye might see. Europa's long curving fractures hint at the subsurface liquid water. The tidal flexing the large moon experiences in its elliptical orbit around Jupiter supplies the energy to keep the ocean liquid. But more tantalizing is the possibility that even in the absence of sunlight that process could also supply the energy to support life, making Europa one of the best places to look for life beyond Earth. What kind of life could thrive in a deep, dark, subsurface ocean? Consider planet Earth's own extreme shrimp.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SETI Institute, Cynthia Phillips, Marty Valenti]

[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[Ken H]

ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA

ATTEMPT NO FISHING THERE

[onyx]

Interesting, to say the least.

[tet68]

Feds to impose slot limit on Europan bass, catch
limited to one per orbit.

[Ken H]

All your bass are belong to us.

[tet68]

Someone set Europa up the bass.

[zeestephen]

Some scientists claim that Europa's sub-surface ocean might be 60 miles deep.

I've never understood how that much water (or ice) could collect in - and stay on the surface of - a moon that is smaller than our own moon.

[RedMDer]

We need your help to keep the lights on.
FR is funded solely by contributions made by
liberty loving people who enjoy and use it.

Every donation counts no matter how big or small.
If you can donate $5, $10, $20, $100 or more,
it would be greatly appreciated.

Support Free Republic
We're going to need a big push to
wrap this up. Let's git 'er done. 

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Should I be a’skeered that The Shrimp People are coming? Nah. Red Lobster will get the fishing rights, LOL!

Stunning photo, though.

But, can some smartie ‘splain to me how can they tell that the water is liquid underneath?

[SunkenCiv]

The temperature and possibly the rise and fall of the surface.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

So, it ripples and sloshes, kind of like a full water balloon?

[martin_fierro]

My God.

It’s full of LOL.

[mikrofon]

Un-mastered?

[Viking2002]

Gravitational pull creates tidal friction, which translates into thermal generation. Not enough to generate real heat, actually - the actual temp of liquid water is still cold enough to freeze the personals off an iron dog - but the salinity and pressure is enough to keep it in a liquid form, and potentially within the survivable boundaries of the aquatic extremophiles known on Earth.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Good to know. :)