More oxygen than previously thought on Jupiter's moon Europa

Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:29 pm » by **Nickelson**

These concentrations of oxygen could be great enough to support not only microorganisms, but also larger animals that have greater oxygen demands, Greenberg said.

Life is out there.
Perhaps also in the oceans of Europa, but what will it look like???

I wonder what your thoughts are on this subject.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... ocean.html

Jupiter's moon Europa is flowing with a buried liquid water ocean that contains much more oxygen than previously thought – enough to possibly support life, scientists say.

There is no solid evidence of life for anywhere besides Earth, but Europa has long been considered a good place to look for biological activity.

Europa's ocean lies beneath several miles of ice, so scientists wondered whether it has much oxygen, which is thought to be created at the surface by interaction with energetic charged particles from the sun. Scientists think oxygen is probably necessary for life's metabolic processes, unless some creatures use exotic chemistry involving sulfur or methane.

The global ocean on Europa contains about twice the liquid water of all the Earth's oceans combined. The new research suggests that there may be a hundred times more oxygen than previously estimated.

To probe how much oxygen might lie in the ocean, Richard Greenberg of the University of Arizona studied Europa's surface, which appears to be only about 50 million years old - roughly 1 percent of the age of the solar system - and continually reforming.

He considered three possible resurfacing processes: gradually laying fresh material on the surface, opening cracks which fill with fresh ice from below, and disrupting patches of surface in place and replacing them with fresh material. Using estimates for the production of oxygen at the surface, Greenberg found that the delivery rate into the ocean is likely so fast that the oxygen concentration could exceed that of the Earth's oceans in only a few million years.

These concentrations of oxygen could be great enough to support not only microorganisms, but also larger animals that have greater oxygen demands, Greenberg said.

The good news for the question of the origin of life is that there would be a delay of a couple of billion years before the first surface oxygen reached the ocean. Without that delay, the first pre-biotic chemistry and the first primitive organic structures would be disrupted by oxidation, or rusting. Oxidation is a hazard unless organisms have evolved protection from its damaging effects. A similar delay in the production of oxygen on Earth was probably essential for allowing life to get started here.

Tue Oct 13, 2009 10:52 am » by **Nickelson**

Alien life is not that interesting I think? :headscratch:

Am I on the wrong forum on these subjects??

Tue Oct 13, 2009 10:57 am » by **Itofts**

Don't take it personally mate, depending on the time of day. Some subjects that are interesting get missed only to be reposted when the majority of users are on and become very popular. Interesting post thanks :flop:

Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:07 am » by **Nickelson**

Oh no Im not taking it personally and apparently your right, but I get confused when other topics only is about bitching on DTV or on certain members stays on the hot topic forum whole day......and other topics - not only my own - disappears without any discussion or reaction.

But thanks for the compliment. :flop:

I am for myself very curious to the results on life on Europa. I think we should focus more on Europa instead of Mars. Life on Mars is certain to my opinion, but that probably only exists of microorganisms. The more oxygen the bigger life can be, that’s why I think Europa is interesting to investigate more…., maybe certain kind of sharks are swimming the surface of Europa. I wonder :headscratch:

Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:08 am » by **jetxvii**

itofts wrote:Don't take it personally mate, depending on the time of day. Some subjects that are interesting get missed only to be reposted when the majority of users are on and become very popular. Interesting post thanks

you for got to say "I am getting to old for this shit!"

Good Post, and yes I guarantee life in those oceans is a lot more than microbial , probably more than likely Intelligent...and possibly advanced beyond us...

and Europa is a good place to start, and so Is Titan.

Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:12 am » by **Itofts**

You're welcome mate,
I agree with what you've said. The more we find out about planets & moons the more we can assume that either life was there at one point or still is.
I've held a belief that looking for conditions for human life on a planet is a bad idea, look at animals such as dolphins, sharks, turtles. Each in their own way very intelligent & seem to be genetically perfect for surviving.
I'd love to see anything though lol just so long as it's life.

Tue Oct 13, 2009 11:26 am » by **Nickelson**

Well we already found certain "exoplanets" outside our solar system on which the conditions are -apparently- the same as on Earth, so the truth on ET is getting closer and closer each day.
http://exoplanets.org/
We live in an interesting time for space exploration and Im proud to be part of it.
Titan is very interesting to and definitely worth to explore.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/life ... itan.shtml
I will first focus on Europa, regarding the lack of money at for instance NASA.
:cheers:

Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:36 pm » by **Hansom**

Yes indeed I believe Europa harbors life.
Have you seen the film "2010: The year we make contact"
A lot of disclosure about a great many things comes about through Hollywood.
Stargate, Close encounters etc.

Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:52 pm » by **Nickelson**

hansom wrote:Have you seen the film "2010: The year we make contact"

No I didnt, but I will look it up and watch it tonight. Thanks for the tip :flop:

Tue Oct 13, 2009 1:17 pm » by **Cornbread714**

Let's crash something into it!!