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the great lakes of europa presented by

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science at nasa

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at first glance the icy surface of

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jupiter's moon europa appears to be a

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frozen wasteland a deep freeze where

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nothing changes and no life could

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survive

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but researchers have long known there's

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more to europa than meets the eye

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in the 1990s and early 2000s nasa's

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galileo probe swooped low over europa's

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icy landscape

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close-up pictures revealed a

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geologically young surface and unusual

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formations in the ice

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grooved ridges and crustal plates looked

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like they had broken apart and rafted

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into new positions floating on

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subsurface water or slush

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similar ice patterns are found in the

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earth's own arctic

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indeed it is now widely believed that

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europa harbors a vast ocean beneath its

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frozen exterior

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the ocean is deep enough to cover the

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whole surface of europa

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and according to some estimates contains

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more liquid water than all of earth's

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oceans combined

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however being so far from the sun

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europa's surface is completely frozen

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with a crust some tens of miles thick

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this begs the question could such a

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closed-off environment be a habitat for

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life

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new research just published in the

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journal nature suggests that europa

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might not be so closed off after all

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galileo's mission came to an end in 2003

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when the probe was plunged intentionally

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into jupiter's atmosphere but

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researchers continued to study the

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treasure trove of data galileo beamed

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back to earth

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a group led by brittany schmidt a

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postdoctoral fellow at the university of

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texas institute for geophysics focused

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on europa's chaos terrain

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circular bumpy features on europa's

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surface that had long intrigued

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researchers

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it turns out that similar terrains are

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found on earth on ice shelves and under

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glaciers overlaying volcanoes

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based on what is known of earth

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schmidt's team developed a four-step

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model to explain how europa's chaos

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features form

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i read the paper and immediately thought

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yes that's it that makes sense said

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robert pappalardo senior research

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scientist of the planetary science

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section at nasa's jet propulsion

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laboratory who did not participate in

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the study

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it's the only convincing model that fits

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the full range of observations

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according to the analysis one of the

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chaos terrains apparently overlies a

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body of liquid the area of the north

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american great lakes

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moreover the authors believe that ice

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shelves on top of the lake are

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collapsing providing a way to transfer

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nutrients and energy between the surface

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and europa's vast underground ocean

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we see evidence that even though

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europa's ice shelf is thick it can mix

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vigorously says schmidt that could make

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europa and its ocean more habitable

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given the number of chaos terrains on

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europa's surface many more such lakes

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might exist

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the data opens up some compelling

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possibilities agrees mary voitek

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director of nasa's astrobiology program

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however she cautions scientists

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worldwide will want to take a close look

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at this analysis and review the data

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before we can fully appreciate the

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implication of these results

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final proof might require a trip to

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europa by a spacecraft designed to probe

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the icy shell

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such a mission is being studied by nasa