Everybody knows that it will be destroyed by a monolith before it even gets close.
Thereās little chance of that happening. NASA is rightly paranoid that we would contaminate Europa with our bacteria. Itās why Jupiter probes are sent to die in the Jovian atmosphere.
Three people blasting off to the ISS in a few minutes, live broadcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX9I1KyNa8M
edit: replaced nasa tv live stream link with youtube link
Including Juno! It is planned to be de-orbited into Jupiter post mission just to avoid the minuscule chance of somehow finding its way to Europa and raising any specter of doubt that life found there, if any, was brought there by humans.
Dumb question then: If weāre concerned about contaminating Europa, how are we ever going to see whatās there? Just by orbiting crap around it?
Also, everyone knows that the big risk in space exploration is our stuff picking up weird alien organisms and returning to Earth and contaminating our planet (see Men In Black fer example) instead of the other way 'round.
Good point. Itās a bit silly, in Europa there are hopes to find lifeā¦ not in the surface, but a dozen kms under ice in the underground ocean, near volcanic tubes.
I think the difference is mission preparation. Juno was not prepped for a mission to find life, so the environment it was built in and the precautions they take may be different than one that is. Or, they will do their best to catalogue any potential hitch-hikers prior to departure so as to minimise the risk of false positives once we get there.
For reasons like these:
Unless we know what may hitch a ride, we may mistake them for alien life once we get there.
I wonderā¦ If we sent a contaminated probe into Europa and didnāt return with another probe for 15 yearsā¦ assuming the conditions for the bacteria, etc. that hitchhiked were right, would the entire planet(ary body) be contaminated?
I think we should purposefully shoot large pods full of tardigrades out into the stars.
Maybe something that is half a animal, half a plant, that we donāt have a word to describe. But I doubt that much else. Our star is the source of energy of life, anything that is far from the star is going to get almost no energy, so you are going to see life that donāt use much energy to live, very passive, that just growns and donāt do much else.
It would be different in a planet with intense volcanic activity or something, with life forms that where able to tap into geothermal or other type of energy. I think.
Tidal forces in some of these places generates a lot of heat - itās why they have water oceans under thick ice layers. Sure, they donāt get energy from our Sun, but that tidal heat is another matter.
Not to mention that Jupiter emits a lot of radiation, right?
Yeah, that too, but as far as we know, that has more potential to kill life rather than foster it.
As far as we knowā¦
Itās like you people havenāt even seen Europa Report.
You know, I have seen it and I was wondering if they were just sort of trolling around that idea or if they didnāt know of it.
Re Europa Report, remember you have to commit suicide if you touch hydrazine to avoid killing anyone you come in contact withā¦ I bet generations of ground crew watching the movie were surprised to discover they had shirked their duties over the years. Perhaps the next ship sent into deep space with hydrazine thruster fuel lines running through the outside-hull communications-array fuse panel will be equipped with handy towelettes to wipe it off.
Well, thats interesting.
I always trough life need light for food. But I guest even here in earth we have examples where theres alternatives. So I guest I was wrong and life can exist in places with low sunlight but other alternatives.
It would be cool if we find life in other planets. And probably useful for science. But is probably a bit of a lottery, since space is a so fucking deadly place.
Well, I think the thought is that light is just a form of (visible) radiation, so other types of radiation might support it, too.
And indeed we know this is true. there are ecosystems on earth that do not rely at all on sunlight - around hydrothermal vents, in cave systems, within the crust.
Teiman,
There is intense heat inside Europa, and I would not doubt that the deeper the water the hotter that water is. Some reports say that Europa has more water than Earth. When you consider the enormous tidal pressures grinding the middle of the planet to keep all that water unfrozen and scar the surface itās pretty incredible. Thanks to research done here on earth in a locked caves and volcanic vents, weāve shown not a drop of sunlight is needed for an amazing array of life, some very mobile. All thatās needed is an energy source. Be that chemical leaching, sunlight, tidal pressures, or volcanism. Itās pretty awesome how life can evolve. There was a paper released a few days ago talking about how the chemical soup around Titan may have key elements for the most primitive forms of life due to the presence of hydrogen cyanide. I wish I my lifetime that we would get probes to search out each these places.
Wow, this is incredible. Juno nailed itās orbit to within "tens of miles". NASA and JPL - I am in awe.