Scientists confirm there is an ocean of water in Jupiter's moon Ganymede.

[This is The End]

This makes some people first think of life.

It makes others first think of fuel.


http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/rep...n-ganymede-raising-prospects-for-life-2068428

Big too:

Scientists estimate the ocean is 60 miles (100 km) thick, 10 times deeper than Earth's oceans, and is buried under a 95-mile (150-km) crust of mostly ice.

Neat how they "confirmed" it:

As Jupiter rotates, its magnetic field shifts, causing Ganymede's aurora to rock. Scientists measured the motion and found it fell short. Using computer models, they realized that a salty, electrically conductive ocean beneath the moon's surface was counteracting Jupiter's magnetic pull.

Scientists ran more than 100 computer models to see if anything else could be having an impact on Ganymede's aurora. They also repeated the seven-hour, ultraviolet Hubble observations and analyzed data for both belts of aurora. "This gives us confidence in the measurement," Saur said.

NASA Planetary Science Division Director Jim Green called the finding "an astounding demonstration." "They developed new approach to look inside a planetary body with a telescope," Green said.

And the list grows:

Ganymede joins a growing list of moons in the outer solar system with subsurface water. On Wednesday, scientists reported that Saturn's moon Enceladus has hot springs beneath its icy crust. Other water-rich worlds include Jupiter moons Europa and Callisto.

 

[Dinwar]

I'm not sure you can call it confirmation--I'm a big advocate of ground-truthing, because reality is stranger than fiction and we can only model what we know about.

That said, it's an interesting way to figure out what to look for when we get there.

Earth-like life (ie, stuff built of carbon that requires liquid water) is a real posibility there. Most of Earth's life is in the lithosphere, mass-wise, and we've known for decades now that geologic activity can generate energy sources organisms can use. So if there is liquid water, it's likely that there are critters of some sort living in it.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Anybody seen "The Europa Report"?

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

Magnetic fieds, auroras and salt water? Sounds like the 70s all over again. Can we get some crystals in the story for a total "science is more woo than woo" effect?

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

Anybody seen "The Europa Report"?

Not enough weed and Doritos in the universe to keep it from sucking. Horrible film, almost as bad as the moon nazis.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not enough weed and Doritos in the universe to keep it from sucking. Horrible film, almost as bad as the moon nazis.

But the good guys won in the end.

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

But the good guys won in the end.

True in both films, I guess?


I'm pretty darned excited by the technique used to gather the data. This could lead to all kinda new ways to do science. What an awesome time to be.

 

[aleCcowaN]

They did models, so we now have a strong hypothesis.

Not enough weed and Doritos in the universe to keep it from sucking. Horrible film, almost as bad as the moon nazis.

+0.85

 

[portlandatheist]

What is the source of heat? Tidal friction?

 

[LSSBB]

Ganymede has much less surface radiation than Europa, 8 REM vs. 540, so it is a better target for exploration.

It is theorized to also have an iron-nickel core with temperatures of 1500-1700 K.

 

[Loss Leader]

Anybody seen "The Europa Report"?

I didn't see it so much as I survived it.

 

[Dinwar]

What is the source of heat? Tidal friction?

That's my understanding. Not the only moon that experiences such extreme tidal forces.

 

[marplots]

"Buried under a 95-mile crust of mostly ice..." was something of a turn-off.

 

[Dinwar]

"Buried under a 95-mile crust of mostly ice..." was something of a turn-off.

Why?

Again, the majority of Earth's biomass is thought to be in the mantle, far from any photosynthetic influence. If life on Ganymede arose near volcanic vents (a hypothesized mechanism for life on Earth arising, and a plausible one for life anywhere to arise) a thick crust of ice would be essentially irrelevant to them, if not beneficial (the radiation environment around gas giants isn't exactly healthy for known or hypothesized life forms).

Makes getting there a tad difficult, but ice is more forgiving than, say, basalt.

 

[rjh01]

I wonder what sort of life there would be in the water? Like how would plants their get their energy from? Maybe like plants in deep hot vents on earth?

 

[nvidiot]

Those aren't plants. And we're talking about basic life not multicellular complicated life that arose relatively recently on Earth.

Any sufficiently large energy gradient, like a temperature difference between higher and lower levels, can be used to extract useful energy for life.

 

[Dinwar]

I wonder what sort of life there would be in the water? Like how would plants their get their energy from? Maybe like plants in deep hot vents on earth?

Chemosynthesis. It is not an uncommon method for life on Earth. Plus, attempts to define life there in terms of Eath kingdoms are almost certainly doomed to failure--we should avoid talking about "animals" and "plants" and the like, because it biases us against anything that doesn't fit those categories.

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

Chemosynthesis. It is not an uncommon method for life on Earth. Plus, attempts to define life there in terms of Eath kingdoms are almost certainly doomed to failure--we should avoid talking about "animals" and "plants" and the like, because it biases us against anything that doesn't fit those categories.

Heck, that confuses us here. Wasn't it just last year another difficult-to-categorize biote was discovered?

 

[Monketi Ghost]

I'm excited.
And I usually don't get thrilled by preliminary data.
This seems legit!

 

[Dinwar]

Heck, that confuses us here. Wasn't it just last year another difficult-to-categorize biote was discovered?

Wouldn't surprise me; since the discovery of black smokers it seems like there's a new find every few days. Which is really exciting.