NASA just announced it'll be visiting this beautiful moon for the first time

[Dave Lane]

The hunt for extraterrestrial life just grew a little hotter.

On Monday, during his State of NASA speech, administrator Charles Bolden announced that NASA would be selecting projects to accompany a probe to Jupiter's moon Europa.

Floating in space about 390 million miles from earth, Europa is a remote ice ball that harbors a massive ocean underneath its surface.

So massive, in fact, that scientists suspect Europa could have as much as two to three times more liquid water than Earth does.

Judging from the abundance of life thriving in Earth's oceans, where there's liquid water, there's the potential for life.

Not only that, Europa is absolutely gorgeous:




Europa is about 1,900 miles in diameter — slightly smaller than our moon. The brown veins that give the moon it's iconic beauty are still a mystery, but the leading theory is that they show where Europa's crust cracked open, letting warmer, dirtier water seep through and then freeze.
Jupiter's strong gravitational tug on the tiny moon generates tidal forces that stretch the entire surface — similar to how the Moon's gravity tugs the water in Earth's oceans, creating tides. The stretching then cracks the crust, letting water deep beneath the surface to seep through.

But that's not the only impact the gas giant has on its moon. As NASA astrobiologist Kevin Hand explains in a video about Europa:

Europa has liquid water because the moon is orbiting Jupiter, and the tidal tug and pull causes Europa to flex up and down — all that tidal energy turns into friction and heat that helps maintain this liquid water ocean beneath an icy shell.



Below is a close-up of the circular impact crater in the southern hemisphere in the image above. Called Pwyll, the impact crater is a relatively new feature on the surface of Europa, and it is also compelling evidence of the enormous ocean sloshing underneath the surface.
Scientists suspect that when the impactor hit, it splattered fresh, fine water ice particles everywhere that now show up as the bright-white arms adorning the moon's face around the darker crater. NASA's Galileo spacecraft — the only probe to fly by Europa more than once — took the image below in 1998 showing the darker crater, which is about 16 miles in diameter.



he impact crater's arms reach far across the surface. Even 620 miles north of the crater you can see evidence of the white streaks in the awesome close-up shot below.
The white and blue colors are the residual ice particles from the blast. Galileo snapped this photo of this region, which is 44 miles wide by 19 miles long, in 1996.



Although Galileo took the most detailed images of Europa we have, astronomers still don't know exactly how much liquid water there is or if life hides underneath the moon's icy shell. That is why, just last year, NASA issued a Request for Information to the scientific community to offer up ideas on the best, economically viable approach to study this amazing moon.
Now, it looks as if some of those ideas might have paid off as scientists look forward to learning more about the future mission to Europa this spring.

According to NASA the mission should complete the following tasks:

Characterize the extent of the ocean and its relation to the deeper interior
Characterize the ice shell and any subsurface water, including their heterogeneity, and the nature of surface-ice-ocean exchange
Determine global surface, compositions and chemistry, especially as related to habitability
Understand the formation of surface features, including sites of recent or current activity, identify and characterize candidate sites for future detailed exploration
Understand Europa’s space environment and interaction with the magnetosphere.
Twitter users expressed their excitement about the latest news:



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-...#ixzz3QjmtNrnU

[DaneMcCloud]

Alien life forms, anti-vaxxers - what more could one ask of a football forum?

[keg in kc]

If there is any 'proof' of extraterrestrial technology it's so highly compartmentalized in private industry (not government) that very few people are party to it. To both hide it and provide plausible deniability. Which is why I think the disclosure people are so ludicrous.

As far as alien life goes, they were rumored to have found chemical evidence of it in the 70s with some equipment on board the Viking landers (spectrograph iirc) and obviously fossilized evidence in rock here in the late 90s. And then the evidence publicized last year.

Plenty of evidence for life out there, I think we'll have a definitive statement including 'proof' soon. Appears to be a slow roll out.

As far as UFOs go that's a completely different kind of thing, and the believers, the skeptics and the debunkers/mockers will never find common ground short of a proverbial landing on the white house lawn. Which even then might be disregarded as an after effects hoax, and probably not by who you'd think.

But really do we need to bring UFOs into this thread?

[Fish]

Originally Posted by KINGPIN CHIEFS FAN

Bury your head in the sand all you want. If you're gullible enough to believe what the government spoon feeds you then there's nothing I can say to you to make you change your mind. I like to look at all possibilities and then make up my own mind.

Who's gullible here? You can take the US government completely out of the equation, and there's still zero evidence of any existence of alien life.

The person saying "Show me evidence" clearly isn't the one burying their head in the sand. They're asking for more evidence of your ridiculous claim. That's the opposite of ignoring it. If you actually liked to look at all possibilities then you wouldn't be dismissing others as having their heads in the sand when they ask for further evidence.

[Molitoth]

Originally Posted by Numbah One

Watch the movie Europa Report. Good hard sci-fi.

Just started watching.

[KINGPIN CHIEFS FAN]

[QUOTE=Fish;11310571]Who's gullible here? You can take the US government completely out of the equation, and there's still zero evidence of any existence of alien life.

The person saying "Show me evidence" clearly isn't the one burying their head in the sand. They're asking for more evidence of your ridiculous claim. That's the opposite of ignoring it. If you actually liked to look at all possibilities then you wouldn't be dismissing others as having their heads in the sand when they ask for further evidence.[/QUO How do you know my claim is ridiculous? That's just your opinion. If thousands of eyewitness testimonies and numerous videos, including military footage, doesn't make you at least consider the possible existence of other intelligent life in this Universe then you really have a closed mind. I'll stick with my opinions and you are welcome to stick with yours.

[Rain Man]

I've always been intrigued by Europa. It's so pretty and smooth.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by KINGPIN CHIEFS FAN

How do you know my claim is ridiculous? That's just your opinion. If thousands of eyewitness testimonies and numerous videos, including military footage, doesn't make you at least consider the possible existence of other intelligent life in this Universe then you really have a closed mind. I'll stick with my opinions and you are welcome to stick with yours.

I have certainly considered the possibility. And I assure you I've seen all of the most convincing testimonies and videos. There's not a single one that is convincing of being extraterrestrial. With all the amateur video recording being done these days, and astronomy devices being pointed toward the sky, and continuous video feeds from all over the world, there's still not a shred of convincing physical evidence. Just a bunch of wild eyewitness tales. If the evidence would just match the wild tales just once, any evidence, then you might have a better foundation for which to create your conspiracy theories.

There is life out there. Without a doubt there is. But there's just no evidence it's ever been here in our neck of the woods.

[jiveturkey]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I've always been intrigued by Europa. It's so pretty and smooth.

Just a heads up, you're not in the Peta Jensen thread.

[Easy 6]

Here is a short but interesting little tutorial on Europa by a guy from JPL...

[ozarkchief]

My dad saw some sort of flying craft that led him to believe that there are either ufos, or the government or some other entity has technology beyond what we're privy to. He was previously in the Navy, and was someone who had seen all sorts of military aircraft. Since he was absolutely certain of what he saw, I also believe. I wish there was some sort of proof...a picture or video, but this was in the 70s, so he didn't have a camera handy, unfortunately.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by ozarkchief

My dad saw some sort of flying craft that led him to believe that there are either ufos, or the government or some other entity has technology beyond what we're privy to. He was previously in the Navy, and was someone who had seen all sorts of military aircraft. Since he was absolutely certain of what he saw, I also believe. I wish there was some sort of proof...a picture or video, but this was in the 70s, so he didn't have a camera handy, unfortunately.

Thats a legit cool story, and people like your dad coming forward are a dime a dozen, thanks for sharing... but go to kegs paranormal thread in the media center to post more on this subject.

Lets not hijack a thread thats fascinating enough on its own.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Fish

I have certainly considered the possibility. And I assure you I've seen all of the most convincing testimonies and videos.

You actually haven't, unless Ray Stanford's allowed you to look at his video library. He purportedly has a ton of great stuff, including a good bit of footage taken by the military. And almost nobody has seen any of it, because he's only shared it with select scientists and some of his friends and associates. It's extremely frustrating... In any case, while the shows are entertaining you'll never see anything convincing on h2 or on YouTube. Just fuzzy videos of blurry objects. And hoaxes.

The real stuff, the trace evidence that Ted Phillips has collected over decades or the Stanford videos just doesn't see the light of day. I wish it would.

But the other issue at hand for me is the way that 'UFO' has become synonymous with extraterrestrial. It has only ever meant 'unexplained', but decades of believer misuse, debunker slander and mockery by both the media and a scientific community that has never taken the subject seriously have combined to corrupt the term to the point that it's become pejorative.

People are seeing strange things. Hundreds of thousands of people a year. Some are misidentification of everyday things, some are no doubt military craft both conventional and exotic, and some are inexplicable. That last group represents the true 'UFOs' and I don't think anybody knows what they are. And they probably aren't even one thing.

The shame of this is that so few people are willing to look into them, that so many of those few that do look are loons trying to prove some wacky preconceived idea instead of going where the evidence leads, and that in large part because of them it's such a poison topic that most in the scientific community won't admit to an interest or openly research the subject, because overt admission of interest kills them with their peers.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

You actually haven't, unless Ray Stanford's allowed you to look at his video library. He purportedly has a ton of great stuff, including a good bit of footage taken by the military. And almost nobody has seen any of it, because he's only shared it with select scientists and some of his friends and associates. It's extremely frustrating... In any case, while the shows are entertaining you'll never see anything convincing on h2 or on YouTube. Just fuzzy videos of blurry objects. And hoaxes.

The real stuff, the trace evidence that Ted Phillips has collected over decades or the Stanford videos just doesn't see the light of day. I wish it would.

That seems a little too convenient. And that type of claim has been made for decades, that the proof is out there it's just only accessible to select individuals. Kinda ridiculous if you asked me. Especially considering he has a book for you to purchase, to maybe learn more about this proof that will never come to light.

Either there's proof or there's not. There's always claims of potential smoking gun proof hidden away for some reason or other. Not once in the history of man have any of those types of claims actually proved true.

Originally Posted by keg in kc

But the other issue at hand for me is the way that 'UFO' has become synonymous with extraterrestrial. It has only ever meant 'unexplained', but decades of believer misuse, debunker slander and mockery by both the media and a scientific community that has never taken the subject seriously have combined to corrupt the term to the point that it's become pejorative.

People are seeing strange things. Hundreds of thousands of people a year. Some are misidentification of everyday things, some are no doubt military craft both conventional and exotic, and some are inexplicable. That last group represents the true 'UFOs' and I don't think anybody knows what they are. And they probably aren't even one thing.

The shame of this is that so few people are willing to look into them, that so many of those few that do look are loons trying to prove some wacky preconceived idea instead of going where the evidence leads, and that in large part because of them it's such a poison topic that most in the scientific community won't admit to an interest or openly research the subject, because overt admission of interest kills them with their peers.

I think you are mistaken that so few people are willing to look into them. I think the better explanation is that many people have been more than willing to look into them, and found that none of them have ever borne fruit. It's BS to say that many in the scientific community won't admit to an interest. There's plenty of interest. There's just never been a single instance where the interest produced anything indicating extraterrestrial. Just one instance of legit evidence is all it would take. But that's never happened and nothing put forth so far would qualify.

[keg in kc]

I think you are mistaken that so few people are willing to look into them. I think the better explanation is that many people have been mor than willing to look into them, and found that none of them have ever borne fruit. It's BS to say that many in the scientific community won't admit to an interest. There's plenty of interest. There's just never been a single instance where the interest produced anything indicating extraterrestrial. Just one instance of legit evidence is all it would take. But that's never happened and nothing put forth so far would qualify.

The point I'm making has nothing to do with extraterrestrials. It's about how the scientific community at large will not touch the UFO phenomenon. It's about how there's a mislead social assumption that anybody looking into UFOs is just searching for 'aliens' and since our current science says it's impossible for aliens to be here they don't bother to look into the subject at all. Because only kooks look into UFOs. Don't think that's the case? Find me a news story from any local station or network that doesn't use the x-files theme and isn't part of the broadcast as comic relief. Good luck finding anything that doesn't involve George Knapp. UFO research has been mocked for literally decades.

Again I was and am talking about study of the UFO phenomenon. Meaning a search for explanations for events involving unknown aerial phenomena, not to prove or disprove extraterrestrial contact. And then you proved my point for me by going back to the default extraterrestrial dismissal.

[Dave Lane]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

It started when they inexplicably shut down the Apollo program with equipment already bought and paid for and ready to head to the moon. And then as you mention shifted away from exploration and advancement toward the unimaginative low orbital repitition space shuttle program. However I think manned exploration needs to be an integral part of things going forward, for the reason I mentioned earlier: we need to get off earth. Early exploration with robotic craft makes sense but we need to be out there, too.

We also need to actually make some technological strides instead of continuing to rely on chemical rocket technology developed between the 30s and 50s. And I mean something more immediately practical than the Alcubierre drive. There has to be a better way to get payload (and people) into orbit.

And we need to get back to inspiring the leaders of future generations towards doing great things. Does anybody even dream about being astronauts anymore? Hell I'd take a one way trip to mars right now if it was offered. And that comes from that sense of wonder I felt in the 70s and 80s (yeah, even during the shuttle program...). Sometimes I wonder if we've just lost that, as a society.