From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Thu Oct 17 2002 - 21:46:25 PDT
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From: baalke@jpl.nasa.gov
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 6:31 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Thin Ice Opens Lead For Life On Europa
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992929
Thin ice opens lead for life on Europa
David L. Chandler
New Scientist
October 16, 2002
The chances that life exists on Jupiter's moon Europa look better than ever.
Researchers think the moon's icy crust may be just a few kilometres thick -
perhaps thin enough to crack open under tidal stresses and allow life in the
oceans below to flourish by absorbing the Sun's energy.
Now a team from the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory,
led by Richard Greenberg, have been studying data from NASA's Galileo probe,
which is in orbit around Jupiter. They have built up a strong case over the
past few years that Europa's ice is less than 10 kilometres thick. And they
outlined their most recent results in two talks at the Division for
Planetary Sciences meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, US, as well as in Reviews
of Geophysics (vol 40, p 1).
Full story here:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992929
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