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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Potentially Habitable Moons
NASA ^ | September 19, 2014 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 09/20/2014 12:35:22 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Explanation: For astrobiologists, these may be the four most tantalizing moons in our Solar System. Shown at the same scale, their exploration by interplanetary spacecraft has launched the idea that moons, not just planets, could have environments supporting life. The Galileo mission to Jupiter discovered Europa's global subsurface ocean of liquid water and indications of Ganymede's interior seas. At Saturn, the Cassini probe detected erupting fountains of water ice from Enceladus indicating warmer subsurface water on even that small moon, while finding surface lakes of frigid but still liquid hydrocarbons beneath the dense atmosphere of large moon Titan. Now looking beyond the Solar System, new research suggests that sizable exomoons, could actually outnumber exoplanets in stellar habitable zones. That would make moons the most common type of habitable world in the Universe.

September 19, 2014

(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; europa; ganymede; science; titan
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To: blueunicorn6

Titan is the one to get in on! Jet skiing on lakes of methane, YAHOO!!!


21 posted on 09/20/2014 5:15:58 PM PDT by jmacusa (Liberalism defined: When mom and dad go away for the weekend and the kids are in charge.)
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To: familyop

;’)


22 posted on 09/20/2014 5:19:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv
Flickr
23 posted on 09/20/2014 5:34:03 PM PDT by Dallas59
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To: SunkenCiv

Thank you for the extensive reference…


24 posted on 09/20/2014 6:18:32 PM PDT by mikrofon (APOD Bump)
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To: jmacusa

Even with an athmosphere they’d all be far too cold. There’s probably plenty of water ice in the outer asteroids, sufficient to cover Titan to a few feet at least, leaving some terrain exposed, then work on the atmosphere; or introducing oxygen from the same source to turn that methane into CO2 and water (and some other stuff), then using extremophiles to slowly turn most of the CO2 into oxygen. :’) The place would probably need to have a huge mirror in orbit on the “dark” side or at a libration point (or more than one) to collect and direct more solar radiation, iow, no night, but no really full daylight either.


25 posted on 09/21/2014 5:11:31 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Dallas59

Oooh, I’m definitely getting tha- 850 mb? Well, okay. Thanks, I’ll post that link in the next X-Planets topic.


26 posted on 09/21/2014 5:15:53 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: mikrofon

I probably could have shortened the link on the page though.


27 posted on 09/21/2014 5:17:26 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Dallas59

Hey, I like that Berringer Crater one!


28 posted on 09/21/2014 5:18:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv
Certainly they're all too cold— and distant. Our own moon is much closer. And of course there's Mars, which has a thin atmosphere. I think we should try and terraform The Red Planet. But of course with Obozo killing off the space program.... God how I hate that little narcissistic prick.
29 posted on 09/21/2014 8:40:42 AM PDT by jmacusa (Liberalism defined: When mom and dad go away for the weekend and the kids are in charge.)
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To: SunkenCiv
n/p ... reading the Explanation, the thought came to mind to find what objects had been named for Tantalus (and the similar Tartarus).
30 posted on 09/21/2014 9:34:15 AM PDT by mikrofon (APOD Bump)
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To: jmacusa

Building orbital habitats a la the late Gerard K. O’Neill’s suggestions might make the most sense, but of course, we really don’t need the space down here, contrary to what is often regurgitated by Malthusians.


31 posted on 09/21/2014 10:23:38 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: mikrofon

It’s nice that people have accepted and are working out the details of the idea that various annual meteor showers resulted from cometary debris.


32 posted on 09/21/2014 10:24:42 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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