[petuniasevan]

Interesting. We'll have to send a probe to dig down through the ice and see what's underneath.

But don't be looking for any manned missions for the foreseeable future. Reason?

Europa lies deep within the magnetosphere of Jupiter, which is the volume of space above Jupiter's atmosphere that is affected by Jupiter's magnetic field.

This magnetosphere extends up to 10 million km from Jupiter (i.e., it encompasses a volume 1,000 times that of the Sun) and is filled with ionizing, magnetically trapped particle radiation.

The mechanism of magnetic trapping of radiation at Jupiter is the same as that which operates in Earth's van Allen belts.

Jupiter's magnetosphere is, aside from the Sun, the dominant source of energetic charged particles and radio emissions in the solar system.

Translation? The radiation would fry you in a short time. It's that bad.

A manned mission would have to proceed under heavy shielding, then burrow under the ice on arrival, within 10 minutes,
to avoid heavy irradiation.

I expect the usual 2001: A Space Odyssey jokes. I'm sure you APOD posters won't disappoint!

Get on the APOD PING list!

[petuniasevan]

APOD PING!

[RightWhale]

Apparently there was a robot designed to be launched to Europa to drill through the ice, but now it is thought the ice is far too thick for that mission. Ice doesn't act like you think it should, it's very strange stuff, almost alive in a sense, crystallizing and recrystallizing, not solid at all the way it somehow flows, and it purifies itself of everything that isn't ice.

[Ben Bolt]

Thanks for the Pic !! Sometimes I wish I was nay a mere mortal . The future is a beautiful thing to live in !

[glock rocks]

I expect the usual 2001: A Space Odyssey jokes.

open the apod door, hal.

[headsonpikes]

A robot Zamboni would seem to be the ticket to make Europa habitable.

There we could hold the Inter-Planetary Stanley Cup finals. ;^)