Sentences with phrase «icy shell»

They took a class Johnson offered called Ocean Worlds, which focused on bodies like Europa that are thought to have oceans beneath icy shells.

Europa probably hosts a vast saltwater ocean buried under a thick icy shell.

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.

There Voyager had laid bare vast, surprisingly smooth stretches that told of a past marked by intense internal activity and maybe even a liquid - water layer buried below its icy shell — both on a moon seemingly too small for such phenomena.

This heating ought to be weak, but some unknown process seems to be amplifying it, possibly enough to melt a deep ocean of liquid water on Enceladus, or maybe only enough to form smaller pools of water within the moon's icy shell.

But only recently have measurements confirmed that, beneath the moon's icy shell, an underground ocean spans the entire globe (SN: 10/17/15, p. 8).

«Their pattern reflects spatial variations in the icy shell, consistent with a variety of geological features visible in Cassini images.»

As the moon aged its icy shell got thicker.

But perhaps its most startling discovery was detecting organic compounds in the saltwater ocean sloshing under Enceladus» icy shell.

But only recently have measurements confirmed that, beneath the moon's icy shell, an...

The idea is that Ceres has a subsurface ocean covered by an icy shell.

Ever since NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto last year, evidence has been mounting that the dwarf planet may have a liquid ocean beneath its icy shell.

«While we can not conclude definitively that there is an ocean under Pluto's icy shell, we also can not state that there is not one.»

Europa is thought to have an ocean of water beneath its icy shell.

If a migrating exoplanet dragged a Europa - like moon closer to its host star, the moon's icy shell could melt into liquid oceans and breathable air

Another would loop around Jupiter and complete more than 30 Europa flybys, employing ice - penetrating radar to probe the icy shell.

A new study provides geophysical evidence that it could indeed be happening on the moon's icy shell.

A Brown University study provides new evidence that the icy shell of Jupiter's moon Europa may have plate tectonics similar to those on Earth.

They demonstrated that the icy shell is most likely not a rigid barrier but rather a churning conveyor belt capable of shuttling life - friendly molecules from the frigid surface to the more inviting conditions far beneath.

It also found a vast saltwater ocean under the icy shell of Europa, fanning fantasies of extraterrestrials coming to life in those seas.

The orbiter's suite of instruments may also help settle a debate over the thickness of Europa's icy shell, which could be anywhere from one to dozens of kilometres deep.

The prime target of NASA's orbiter is Jupiter's moon Europa, which is thought to have an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell.

The authors modeled the icy shells of Enceladus and Dione as global icebergs immersed in water, where each surface ice peak is supported by a large underwater keel.

As the moon Europa's icy shell is pushed and pulled by Jupiter's gravity, it heaves up and down.

The insight could help scientists model the thickness of Europa's icy shell.

During its mission to Jupiter in the late 1990s, NASA's Galileo spacecraft observed the moon, all but confirming that Europa harbored a 100 - kilometer - deep ocean covered by a relatively thin, icy shell.

Sections of its icy shell slide beneath each other in a similar way to Earth's continents and ocean floors — which could provide nutrients to any life that might live under the ice.

Europa's global ocean is encased in an icy shell, 20 to 30 kilometres thick.

The icy shell that encases the moon has sections that slide beneath each other in a similar way to Earth's continents and ocean floors.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University]-- A Brown University study provides new evidence that the icy shell of Jupiter's moon Europa may have plate tectonics similar to those on Earth.

Chaos features on Europa's surface are likely to be formed by mechanisms that involve significant heat exchange between the icy shell and the underlying lake, which may provide a pathway for transferring nutrients as well as energy between the surface and the vast global ocean thought to exist below the thick ice shell (NASA science news; and press release).

Scientists announced Thursday that measurements from NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected hydrogen gas, a key energy source for microbial life, in a plume gushing from a vast liquid water ocean buried beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Europa (which is 12 percent smaller than Earth's Moon) appears to have a sparsely cratered shell of water ice that may be only 30 to 50 million years old, and so some resurfacing process must be renewing its icy shell.

From there, warm plumes of water erupt from the ocean through cracks in the moon's icy shell.

The prime mission plan includes 40 to 45 flybys, during which the spacecraft would image the moon's icy surface at high resolution and investigate its composition and the structure of its interior and icy shell.

Enceladus may be covered in an icy shell, but beneath the surface lies a globe - spanning liquid ocean about 37 miles (60 km) deep.

But d, they say, may be covered in a giant ocean, and e could be hiding aquatic life tucked under an icy shell.

Since the days of the Galileo mission, when the spacecraft showed that Europa was covered with an icy shell, scientists have debated the composition of Europa's surface.

The information Cassini gathered during these passes strongly suggests that Enceladus harbors a large ocean beneath its icy shell, and that this ocean might be able to support life as we know it, mission team members have said.

Create an icy shell that shields you and slows nearby enemies.