Starship Asterisk*

neufer wrote:

• They would definitely be of zoological importance.

highschool dropout wrote:
Jovian moon Europa definitely is a water ice covered body: it is apparent that beneath the ice is an ocean of water which is churning in sulphur-rich compounds as evidenced by the yellowish color of flow issuing from cracks in crust. Europa is likely to have bioforma which thrive in sulphur-rich salty brine similar to geologically active regions of the Earth. However, these probably would not be of zoological or economic importance.

• They would definitely be of zoological importance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_%28moon%29#Composition wrote:
<<Since the Voyager spacecraft flew past Europa in 1979, scientists have worked to understand the composition of the reddish-brown material that coats fractures and other geologically youthful features on Europa's surface. Spectrographic evidence suggests that the dark, reddish streaks and features on Europa's surface may be rich in salts such as magnesium sulfate, deposited by evaporating water that emerged from within. Sulfuric acid hydrate is another possible explanation for the contaminant observed spectroscopically. In either case, because these materials are colorless or white when pure, some other material must also be present to account for the reddish color, and sulfur compounds are suspected.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur#Organic_compounds wrote:
<<Sulfur is an essential component of all living cells. It is the seventh or eighth most abundant element in the human body by weight, about equal in abundance to potassium, and slightly greater than sodium and chlorine. A 70 kg human body contains about 140 grams of sulfur. In plants and animals, the amino acids cysteine and methionine contain most of the sulfur, and the element is present in all polypeptides, proteins, and enzymes that contain these amino acids. In humans, methionine is an essential amino acid that must be ingested. Disulfide bonds (S-S bonds) between cysteine residues in peptide chains are very important in protein assembly and structure. These covalent bonds between peptide chains confer extra toughness and rigidity. For example, the high strength of feathers and hair is due in part to the high content of S-S bonds with cysteine and sulfur. Eggs are high in sulfur to nourish feather formation in chicks, and the characteristic odor of rotting eggs is due to hydrogen sulfide. The high disulfide bond content of hair and feathers contributes to their indigestibility and to their characteristic disagreeable odor when burned.>>

highschool dropout wrote:
It would be unwise to devise a mission to Europa to bring such bio-forma to the Earth if they existed. Still, sending an astronaut to Europa would be nice if only to take a selfie with Jupiter in the background. Personally, I would prefer a mission to Triton, the doomed moon of Neptune. Of course, there is a means for preventing Triton's eventual catastrophic plunge into Neptune. However, the technology to effect such corrections do not exist on Earth. But, it does exist.

• Plenty of time before we need to be concerned with that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triton_%28moon%29 wrote:
<<Tidal interactions also cause Triton's orbit, which is already closer to Neptune than the Moon's is to Earth, to gradually decay further; predictions are that 3.6 billion years from now, Triton will pass within Neptune's Roche limit. This will result in either a collision with Neptune's atmosphere or the breakup of Triton, forming a ring system similar to that found around Saturn.>>

highschool dropout wrote:Jovian moon Europa definitely is a water ice covered body: it is apparent that beneath the ice is an ocean of water which is churning in sulphur-rich compounds as evidenced by the yellowish color of flow issuing from cracks in crust. Europa is likely to have bioforma which thrive in sulphur-rich salty brine similar to geologically active regions of the Earth.

Quantum Tango wrote:A highway system! It looks like a lot of roads in an urban area! I know, that's ridiculous, but just take a step back, and look, don't judge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Report wrote:
Petrovna sees a blue light in the distance; she decides to investigate it. She approaches the light glowing through the ice; the ice below her breaks and she falls through. As she descends into the depths, only her head camera continues to show footage, displaying her terrified face as the blue bioluminescence is reflected in her eyes, before cutting out.

RafaC wrote:Turn the image upside down and all the ridges become crevasses and the mounds, depressions. I wonder which is the true view.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Report wrote:

---

<<Dr. Unger (Embeth Davidtz), CEO of Europa Ventures, narrates the story of the Europa One mission. Six astronauts embark on a privately funded mission to Europa, a moon of Jupiter, to find potential sources of life.

The ship lands safely, but misses its original target zone. The crew drills through the ice and releases a probe into the underlying sea. Blok, who is sleep-deprived and eliciting concern in the rest of the crew, sees a light outside the ship. However, he is unable to record it or otherwise convince the crew of its occurrence. The probe is struck by an unknown lighted object, and contact with it is lost.

Petrovna insists on collecting samples on Europa's surface. After a crew vote, she embarks on a walk outside. Analyzing the samples, Luxembourg discovers traces of a single-celled organism. As communication is disrupted by increasing radiation, Petrovna sees a blue light in the distance; she decides to investigate it. She approaches the light glowing through the ice; the ice below her breaks and she falls through. As she descends into the depths, only her head camera continues to show footage, displaying her terrified face as the blue bioluminescence is reflected in her eyes, before cutting out.

The crew agrees to leave in order to bring their discovery back to Earth, but the engines malfunction. As the ship hurtles back to Europa's surface, Xu unbuckles from his seat to remove water shielding to reduce the impact speed. Remarkably, the ship crashes at the originally-targeted landing site. On impact, Xu is killed, and the ship is damaged, leaking oxygen and losing heat. It begins to sink into the ice.

Blok and Luxembourg suit up to make repairs outside the ship. Luxembourg tries to descend, but falls through the ice. Blok knows that there is no chance that he alone will be able to repair the ship before it sinks. Instead, he manages to fix the communication system, at the expense of turning off the life support systems, just before the same blue light Petrovna saw approaches and he appears to fall through the ice as well.

Dasque re-establishes communication with Earth. All the collected images and data that have been saved over the blackout months are sent, just as the ice cracks and the ship begins to sink. Alone and anticipating her death, Dasque opens the airlock to flood the ship in hopes of revealing the source of the light. As the water rises to the cockpit, she sees a tentacled, bioluminescent creature rising toward her, before the camera cuts out.

In the epilogue, Unger confirms that the crew of Europa had discovered life, and exceeded every expectation, as the footage plays from an earlier scene of the crew posing in front of the camera.>>

A new NASA study modeling conditions in the ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa suggests that the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist there, even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity.

Europa is strongly believed to hide a deep ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy shell. Whether the Jovian moon has the raw materials and chemical energy in the right proportions to support biology is a topic of intense scientific interest. The answer may hinge on whether Europa has environments where chemicals are matched in the right proportions to power biological processes. Life on Earth exploits such niches. ...

• Geophysical Research Letters (online 17 May 2016) DOI: 10.1002/2016GL068547

NRCarlson9721 wrote:

RafaC wrote:Turn the image upside down and all the ridges become crevasses and the mounds, depressions. I wonder which is the true view.

Agreed; I'm guessing those are crevasses and depressions. Very narrow ridges like those would seem much less stable than narrow crevasses. It would be really surprising to me if they are ridges, but then these moons are constantly surprising me.

RafaC wrote:Turn the image upside down and all the ridges become crevasses and the mounds, depressions. I wonder which is the true view.

Tonnegl wrote:
I don't get it. Why is there an "intense flux of high-energy radiation from Jupiter" ??

• Jovian radiation (Van Allen) belts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere_of_Jupiter wrote:
<<As cold, dense plasma moves outward, it is replaced by hot, low-density plasma (temperature 200 million K (20 keV) or higher) moving from the outer magnetosphere. This plasma, adiabatically heated as it approaches Jupiter, forms the radiation belts in Jupiter's inner magnetosphere.>>

Tonnegl wrote:I don't get it. Why is there an "intense flux of high-energy radiation from Jupiter" ??

APOD Robot wrote:Oxygen and other compounds that react with hydrogen would come from Europa's surface. There water ice molecules would be split apart by the intense flux of high-energy radiation from Jupiter and cycled into the Europan ocean from above.