Starship Asterisk*

Jupiter moon’s ocean is rich in oxygen..

That,s it then.. There must be life under that ice.

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/3069 ... ich-oxygen

Excellent...

Mark

Another article reports the same thing. http://www.physorg.com/news174918239.html

Jupiter's Moon Europa Has Enough Oxygen For Life

Also http://www.universetoday.com/2009/10/08 ... tist-says/

Europa Capable of Supporting Life, Scientist Says

All of these sites are reporting the point of view of Richard Greenberg, a Planetary Scientist from the University of Arizona, who has recently published a book called Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon

The book review at amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/Unmasking-Europa- ... 635&sr=8-1 reports:

In his new book, Greenberg walks readers through the Europa photo gallery like a curator in an art museum. He interprets the meaning of these wonderful images and recounts how he and his colleagues came to see Europa's strange features as evidence that the outer crust is a thin layer of ice riding over a deep ocean. This is not the mainstream opinion, however. Most scientists who study Europa believe the ice is much thicker: tens of kilometers as opposed to only a few kilometers. In the course of defending his minority position, Greenberg blames the hierarchical structure of big science projects for creating a politically-motivated "thick ice" cabal that refused to go back on its initial interpretations even when later data seemed to contradict them... With all the evidence in the book for thin ice, why do most planetary scientists continue to support a thick crust interpretation?... Greenberg says that Galileo's team leaders decided prematurely that Europa had thick ice, and afterwards it became politically advantageous to toe that line.

At article at http://www.universetoday.com/2007/12/04 ... k-or-thin/ outlines the thick ice theory

Europa's Ocean: Thick or Thin?
" The most plausible models of Europa's interior have an H2O-ice layer of thickness 80-170km. However, the gravity measurements tell us nothing about the state of this layer (solid or liquid)," said Dr. Nico Schilling.
. . .
The researchers compared their models of Europa's electromagnetic induction with the results of Galileo's magnetic field measurements, and found that the total conductivity of the ocean was about 50,000 Siemens (a measure of electrical conductivity).
. . .
Depending on the composition of the ocean, though, the thickness could be between 25 and 100km, which is also thicker than the previously estimated lower limit of 5km. The less conductive the ocean is, the thicker it must be to account for the measured conductivity, and this depends on the quantity and type of salt found in the ocean, which still remains unknown.

Part of the problem is that Galileo had two significant failures that severely limited data collection. First its main antenna failed to deploy and an early problem with an on-board tape data collector further reduced its capacity. These failures

prompted engineers to sacrifice data acquisition of almost all of the Io and Europa observations during Jupiter Orbit Insertion in order to focus solely on recording data sent from the Jupiter probe descent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_%28spacecraft%29

According to Greenberg, the visual data cited by both thin and thick ice theory proponents consists of a mere 1000 photographs. So I'm guessing that all this reduced data collection leaves a disappointing amount of room for wrangling.

It would be so exciting to find life in the solar system! I want Greenberg to be right. But its premature to say right now. The next probe is planned for 2026 http://www.universetoday.com/2009/02/18 ... its-moons/ so resolution of this matter is a few years away.

Galileo was launched in 1995 and burned up in Jupiter's atmosphere in 2003.

Elementary, my dear Watson.