From Dust To Mountains

We had mentioned in our first science post that Europa was a prime candidate to find life within our solar system outside of Earth. Recently the news got much better.

New research on Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa indicates the presence of a subsurface lake buried beneath frozen mounds of huge jumbled chunks of ice. While it has long been believed that Europa’s ice lies atop a deep underground ocean, these new findings support the possibility of large pockets of liquid water being much closer to the moon’s surface — as well as energy from the Sun — and ultimately boosting the possibility it could contain life.

Time lapse sequences of photographs taken with a low-light camera by the crew of expeditions 28 and 29 on board the International Space Station from August to October 2011.

Full screen. HD. Seriously…

Today would have been Carl Sagan’s 77th birthday, and the past few years November 9th has been designated as “Carl Sagan Day” by people who appreciate Sagan’s influence — not only on science, but also the public’s understanding of it.

“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe.”

Since we’re getting to know each other, we’ll be posting some articles about what gets us pumped. It’s part of the bonding experience, you know.

We here at From Dust To Mountains are big into space/science. It’s what a lot of our music is based on. This particular article is one of the most fascinating on the subject: The Story of Three Moons: Life In The Outer Solar System.

Europa has emerged as one of the top Solar System locations in terms of potential habitability and possibly, hosting extraterrestrial life. Life could exist in its under-ice ocean, perhaps subsisting in an environment similar to Earth’s deep-ocean hydrothermal vents or the Antarctic Lake Vostok. Life in such an ocean could possibly be similar to microbial life on Earth in the deep ocean. So far, there is no evidence that life exists on Europa, but the likely presence of liquid water has spurred calls to send a probe there.