Ice blades threaten Europa landing

[Evil Eye]

Jupiter's icy moon Europa is a prime target for future space missions as it harbours a buried ocean that could have the right conditions for life.



But attempts to land may face a major hazard: jagged blades of ice up to 10m long.



A major US conference has heard the moon may have ideal conditions for icy spikes called penitentes to form.



Scientists would like to send a lander down to sample surface regions where water wells up through the icy crust.



These areas could allow a robotic probe to sample a proxy for ocean water that lies several kilometres deep.



Details of the penitentes theory were announced as scientists outlined another proposal to explore the jovian moon with robotic spacecraft.



On Earth, these features (so named because of their resemblance to the pointed caps worn by penitents in Easter processions around the Spanish-speaking world) form in high altitude regions such as the Andes.



Here, the air is both cold and dry, allowing ice to sublimate (turn from a solid into vapour without passing through a liquid phase).



Penitentes begin to form when irregularities in the surface of the snow are enhanced by the Sun's energy. These furrows then act as a trap for solar radiation, and, as they deepen, the tall peaks are left behind.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21341176





Alien landscapes indeed.

 

[seasidemike]

I have been watching this and I keep getting more and more fascinated with space.

http://science.discovery.com/video-topics/space-videos/space-school-milky-way.htm

One thing I found out last night that I never knew..

OK, we all know that our planets rotate around our sun... but did you know that our sun is then also rotating at a speed of 95 miles a second around the center of our milk way? and then .... milky way is also moving through the universe and is in the process of colliding with another galaxy?



it is insane... we are so so so so small

 

[Evil Eye]

Didn't know about the colliding part, but yes, I knew it all moved.

t is insane... we are so so so so small

It's a matter of perspective. We're huge, just see how much bigger we are than a single atom. And then there's still electrons... We aren't big enough to grasp the size of the universe and not small enough to comprehend subatomic particles.