NASA Probe Data Show Evidence of Liquid Water on Icy Europa

[Phil]

Very interesting

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/europa_20111116.html

EDIT: I know that we've guessed that there has been water on Europa for a long time now, but this is confirming it

 

[ShaneEnochs]

I thought it's been theorized for a while that Europa has oceans beneath it's surface? It makes sense, especially if it has a hot core.

 

[Phil]

I thought it's been theorized for a while that Europa has oceans beneath it's surface? It makes sense, especially if it has a hot core.

It had been theorized, yes. It had also been theorized that the Earth was flat. Then, we set out to see what it really was

 

[zerosdontcount]

This has sort of been known for a while about the oceans but this definitely confirms it Time to start diving.

 

[HiddenSanity]

Hmm.. I'm still skeptical about this, but if it's true, then that would be great. Time to start planning for a residence transfer to Europa.

 

[Zippyjuan]

I wouldn't make reservations yet. The theorized lakes are several miles under the surface which is still pretty inhospitable. Temperature averages minus 160 degrees F. It does have some oxygen but air pressure is ten to the minus 12th that of Earth.

Still, because the inferred lakes are several miles below the surface, the only true confirmation of their presence would come from a future spacecraft mission designed to probe the ice shell. Such a mission was rated as the second highest priority flagship mission by the National Research Council's recent Planetary Science Decadal Survey and is being studied by NASA.

Still intersting though. We learn new things all the time.