Sentences with phrase «icy moons in»

Drabek - Maunder says: «Recent discoveries that icy moons in our outer Solar System could host oceans of liquid water and ingredients for life have sparked exciting possibilities for their habitability.

Although NASA terminated funding in 2005 for a proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (which would have searched for evidence of sub-ice, oceanic life on Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede), the Agency was still funding the development of a robotic submarine for exploring the sub-ice oceans of those icy moons in 2007 (Kathleen M. Wong, New Scientist, December 14, 2007).

Not exact matches

The goal is to keep Juno from disrupting any aliens — microbial or otherwise — that might live in hidden oceans of water below the icy shells of Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede.

Launched in October 1997, the Cassini mission to Saturn included a sophisticated robotic spacecraft that orbited the ringed planet and provided streams of data about its rings, magnetosphere, moon Titan and icy satellites.

Former astronaut John Grunsfeld added, «I think we're one generation away in our solar system, whether it's on an icy moon or on Mars, and one generation [away] on a planet around a nearby star»...

Enceladus, an icy moon of Saturn, has an albedo of 1.4, the highest known albedo of any celestial body in the Solar System.

The way spaceships vent urine and water may be a good stand - in for studying how jets of vapour escape the hidden ocean on one of Saturn's icy moons

Thursday's fly - by and another set for 31 October may also reveal changes in the icy moon.

The spot where Europa's plumes appear to originate (left, with the green oval showing the 2014 occurrence and the blue oval showing the 2016 occurrence) is also the warmest spot on the icy moon's surface, shown in a heat map from the Galileo spacecraft (right, with lighter yellow contours showing relatively warmer regions).

The seemingly bleak icy surfaces of these moons are in fact among the most active landscapes in the solar system.

The moonlets could disperse the icy chunks in the middle A ring as they break up there under the gravitational influence of Saturn and its larger moons.

«In a cosmic hit - and - run, icy Saturn moon may have flipped.»

In 2005, NASA's Cassini spacecraft sent pictures back to Earth depicting an icy Saturnian moon spewing water vapor and ice from fractures, known as «tiger stripes,» in its frozen surfacIn 2005, NASA's Cassini spacecraft sent pictures back to Earth depicting an icy Saturnian moon spewing water vapor and ice from fractures, known as «tiger stripes,» in its frozen surfacin its frozen surface.

The presence of sea salt on Europa's surface suggests the ocean is interacting with its rocky seafloor — an important consideration in determining whether the icy moon could support life.

A major international expedition to Jupiter's moons is in the planning stages, but the space agencies intend to focus on the icy moons Europa and Ganymede.

The southern pole of Saturn's 300 - mile - wide moon spits an average of 56 gallons of water a second into space via geysers in its icy surface.

A subsurface sea of water might hide beneath the icy crust of Dione, one of Saturn's moons, researchers report online October 9 in Geophysical Research Letters.

Jupiter's enigmatic moon Europa has long been thought to contain a huge ocean beneath its icy crust, but what is in that ocean and does it ever come to the surface?

«We started this work motivated to find the types of compounds that might be in comets, icy planets and moons, providing guidance for future NASA missions,» Allamandola adds.

Scientists don't want to risk a run - in between Juno and any of the icy moons, such as Europa, which could conceivably harbor life in its buried liquid water ocean.

Ever since 2005, when NASA's Cassini orbiter found plumes of water vapor spilling out of cracks in the south pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, researchers have sought to learn more about the moon's mysterious interior as a possible abode for extraterrestrial life.

In 2005, NASA's Cassini spacecraft spied jets of water ice and vapor erupting into space from fissures on Enceladus, evidence of a salty ocean beneath the saturnian moon's placid icy surface.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft made its closest fly - by of the north pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus — and saw a world covered in craters and cracks

Around the south pole of Enceladus — a 500 - kilometer - wide runt of a moon many expected to be rather inert and uninteresting — the orbiter saw tantalizing signs of activity — plumes of water vapor venting into space from fissures in the icy surface.

The Cassini spacecraft has found molecular hydrogen spurting in the watery plumes from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, an energy source for anything that might live there

Because such chemistry provides energy for microbial life on Earth, the discovery makes Enceladus the top candidate for hosting life elsewhere in the solar system — besting even Jupiter's Europa, another icy moon with an ocean.

Whereas Pluto's putative ocean could in principle support life, it is probably locked beneath perhaps 200 kilometers of ice and very far from Earth, making it a much less appealing target for astrobiological studies than other, closer subsurface oceans known to exist in the solar system, such as those within the icy moons circling Jupiter and Saturn.

Certain tidally stressed moons in the outer solar system, such as Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, harbor oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts.

The spacecraft will in coming years be plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere, bringing the mission to a fiery end designed to avoid contaminating any of the planet's astrobiologically interesting icy moons.

An ocean within Jupiter's icy moon Europa may be intermittently venting plumes of water vapor into outer space, according to a new study in the Astrophysical Journal.

Its next phase will be the Europa Clipper mission, a Jupiter orbiter launching in the 2020s to study the watery depths beneath the Jovian moon's icy crust.

Researchers suspect that Phoebe's surface has probably changed very little during its captivity, meaning the moon offers unprecedented insights into objects in the Kuiper belt, the icy band from which comets arise.

Ice - encrusted Europa is the most likely moon in the entire solar system to have harbored life, perhaps in oceans beneath the icy surface.

The resulting friction creates heat, possibly enough to keep water in a liquid state deep beneath the moons» icy exteriors.

With a diameter of about 1,215 km, the France - sized moon is one of largest known objects in the Kuiper Belt, the region of icy, rocky bodies beyond Neptune.

SAN FRANCISCO — In its final encounter before incinerating in the atmosphere of Jupiter next year, NASA's Galileo spacecraft has shown that one of Jupiter's innermost moons is a lightweight agglomeration of icy rockIn its final encounter before incinerating in the atmosphere of Jupiter next year, NASA's Galileo spacecraft has shown that one of Jupiter's innermost moons is a lightweight agglomeration of icy rockin the atmosphere of Jupiter next year, NASA's Galileo spacecraft has shown that one of Jupiter's innermost moons is a lightweight agglomeration of icy rocks.

«If you find an ocean beneath the surface of one moon, perhaps the same is true of other icy objects in space,» says Jesper Lindkvist.

The interiors of the icy satellites of giant planets, such as in Jupiter's moon Europa, have conditions where carbonic acid could form.

The very existence of these hardy organisms hints that life might be able to eke out an existence in the cold, dry climate of Mars, the icy, acidic conditions of Jupiter's moon Europa, or in countless other spots beyond our solar system.

Its icy surface was as white and bright as fresh snow, and whereas the other airless moons were heavily pocked with craters, Enceladus was mantled in places with extensive plains of smooth, uncratered terrain, a clear sign of past internally driven geologic activity.

These forces occur on Earth in glacial ice as it flows due to gravity, and in space as icy satellite bodies, such as the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, respond to tidal forces from their parent bodies.

Our best chance to find alien life lies in the vast oceans inside the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter — and we don't have to leave Earth to start looking

Scientists are interested in understanding early life on Earth because if we ever hope to find life on other worlds - especially icy worlds with subsurface oceans such as Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's Enceladus - we need to know what chemical signatures to look for.

Most likely, scientists have proposed, the tidal flexing induced in a moon's icy surface causes cracks in polar regions to open widest while the satellite is farthest from its parent planet but clamp shut at other times.

Scientists are interested in understanding early life on Earth because if we ever hope to find life on other worlds — especially icy worlds with subsurface oceans such as Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's Enceladus — we need to know what chemical signatures to look for.

In 2011, however, the agencies shelved that plan, and ESA is now pursuing its own mission to Jupiter's icy moons.

Now, Waite is interested in applying mass spectrometry to determine Europa's surface composition, data that could clarify how the moon's icy surface interacts with the liquid oceans below.

The disturbance visible at the outer edge of Saturn's A ring in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft could be caused by an object replaying the birth process of icy moons.

By simply tracking water as it melted, migrated, and refroze, Schmidt had, in mere months following a trip to the Antarctic, come up with by far the most complete model of the icy moon's chaotic surface.

In May it approved the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, a probe slated for launch in 2022 that will measure the thickness of Europa's ice shelIn May it approved the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, a probe slated for launch in 2022 that will measure the thickness of Europa's ice shelin 2022 that will measure the thickness of Europa's ice shell.