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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Galileo's Europa
NASA ^ | 29 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SETI Institute, Cynthia Phillips, Marty Valenti

Posted on 03/29/2024 11:41:52 AM PDT by MtnClimber

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 remastered here, with improved 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. The Juno spacecraft currently in Jovian orbit has also made repeated flybys of the water world, returning images along with data exploring Europa's habitability. This October will see the launch of the NASA's Europa Clipper on a voyage of exploration. The spacecraft will make nearly 50 flybys, approaching to within 25 kilometers of Europa's icy surface.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 03/29/2024 11:41:52 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 03/29/2024 11:42:07 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; Agatsu77; America_Right; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 03/29/2024 11:42:51 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

Why are so many planets/planetoids/satllites/moons always round but the rogue asteroids are ugly masses ?


4 posted on 03/29/2024 11:55:01 AM PDT by knarf (I talk to much to be in jeapordy.)
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To: MtnClimber

“All these planets are yours to share. Attempt no landings on Europa”.


5 posted on 03/29/2024 11:58:42 AM PDT by A Navy Vet (USA Birth Certificate - 1787. Death Certificate - 2021? )
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To: knarf
Why are so many planets/planetoids/satllites/moons always round but the rogue asteroids are ugly masses ?

It's really because asteroids are way too small for gravity to do its thing to pull them into a more spherical shape.

6 posted on 03/29/2024 12:03:02 PM PDT by plsvn
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To: knarf
Why are so many planets/planetoids/satllites/moons always round but the rogue asteroids are ugly masses ?

Mass and gravity.

Given enough mass, gravity will pull everything into a sphere. Smaller objects don't have the mass required for this to happen.

7 posted on 03/29/2024 12:03:35 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: knarf
Why are so many planets/planetoids/satllites/moons always round but the rogue asteroids are ugly masses ?

Because in order to be spheroidal, something must have sufficient mass to deform into that shape via gravity. And gravity tends to concentrate independent masses together into systems. So the nice round planets, moons, etc have long since been consolidated into systems and/or swept their orbits clear. The remaining scattered stuff small enough to gravitationally slung around on weird trajectories just generally isn't big enough for gravity to squash into a spheroidal shape. And those that originally were have already merged with or gone into orbit around something bigger.
8 posted on 03/29/2024 12:06:14 PM PDT by verum ago (I figure some people must truly be in love, for only love can be so blind.)
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To: A Navy Vet

9 posted on 03/29/2024 12:10:27 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (The Truth is like a lion. You don't need to defend it. Let it loose and it woill defend itself.)
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To: MtnClimber

“We’ll be the Pirate Twins again....”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkj4p3rI17s


10 posted on 03/29/2024 12:19:13 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: MtnClimber

From Europa, does Jupiter look like a bull?


11 posted on 03/29/2024 12:20:02 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: MtnClimber

Looks like a brain with all the blood vessels.


12 posted on 03/29/2024 12:33:55 PM PDT by SkyDancer (~A Bizjet Is Nothing But An Executive Mailing Tube ~)
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To: knarf
Why are so many planets/planetoids/satllites/moons always round but the rogue asteroids are ugly masses ?

Gravity makes things round. If there is not enough mass this does not happen.

13 posted on 03/29/2024 12:48:17 PM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter-deckhand-oilfield roughneck-drilling fluids tech-geologist-pilot-instructor-pharmacist)
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To: MtnClimber

Thomas Dolby, Europa
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=thomas+dolby+europa&mid=7B204F9E75D9C494027A7B204F9E75D9C494027A&FORM=VIRE


14 posted on 03/29/2024 1:08:40 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: MtnClimber

Europa has more water than Earth. Someday it is destined to be the water supply for the Solar System.


15 posted on 03/29/2024 1:55:46 PM PDT by Nateman (If the Pedo Profit Mad Moe (pig pee upon him!) was not the Antichrist then he comes in second.)
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To: Verginius Rufus
From Europa, does Jupiter look like a bull?

YES, Like This:


16 posted on 03/29/2024 2:06:11 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: Nateman
"Europa has more water than Earth."

Titan may have more methane than Earth. Did it have more dinosaurs?

17 posted on 03/29/2024 2:18:02 PM PDT by mikey_hates_everything
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To: alexander_busek
THIS is the second time I've corrected my tagline . . . . SOME thing or one has me singled out.

I'be used this tagline for years.

18 posted on 03/29/2024 7:12:21 PM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true, I have no poroof, but they're true.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

That’s the message. Thanks.


19 posted on 03/30/2024 7:37:18 AM PDT by A Navy Vet (USA Birth Certificate - 1787. Death Certificate - 2021? )
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