Europa's Icy Crust Is 'Free-Floating' Across the Moon's Hidden Ocean, New Juno Images

[tn1911]

Europa's Icy Crust Is 'Free-Floating' Across the Moon's Hidden Ocean, New Juno Images Suggest

https://gizmodo.com/europa-icy-crust...asa-1851481413

On September 29, 2022, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made its closest flyby of Europa, coming to within 220 miles (355 kilometers) of the Jovian moon’s frozen surface. The closeup view of Europa revealed incredible details of the moon’s chaotic terrain, which suggest that its icy crust is not where it used to be. The images also showed a newly discovered feature that was nicknamed “Platypus” for its odd shape.

The findings, made possible by the JunoCam images, were recently published in the Planetary Science Journal, while the results derived from the spacecraft’s high-resolution images, captured by its Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), were published in the journal JGR Planets.

[militarymoron]

Pretty amazing.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Freaky trailer…

[WillBrink]

Just more support for the idea there's a massive ocean under that ice. Hopefully we get a probe down there in my life time.

[Diamondback]

Isn't Europa the ones the aliens in Clarke's works told us not to screw with?

[Kadelic]

Isn't Europa the ones the aliens in Clarke's works told us not to screw with?

That's right. "In the seminal science fiction series Space Odyssey, novelist Arthur C. Clarke recognized Europa’s special place in the Solar System. At the end of the series’ second novel, 2010: Odyssey Two, a ship sent to Jupiter appears to receive a message from aliens: “All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing there.” - https://arstechnica.com/science/2015...ing-to-europa/

[Caduceus]

That's right. "In the seminal science fiction series Space Odyssey, novelist Arthur C. Clarke recognized Europa’s special place in the Solar System. At the end of the series’ second novel, 2010: Odyssey Two, a ship sent to Jupiter appears to receive a message from aliens: “All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing there.” - https://arstechnica.com/science/2015...ing-to-europa/

Great article, but 9 years old! Sadly the clipper hasn't even launched yet (https://europa.nasa.gov/)

[glocktogo]

Didn't the Soviets lose a couple of probes they sent to Europa?

[WillBrink]

Didn't the Soviets lose a couple of probes they sent to Europa?

I'm only aware of Venus, Moon, and Mars attempts. Europa is way out there.

[glocktogo]

I'm only aware of Venus, Moon, and Mars attempts. Europa is way out there.

Disregard, I was thinking of the Phobos missions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobos_program