MetaFilter posts tagged with jupiter

3 Million Tons of Extraterrestrial Ice Fishing

filthy light thief — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:01:42 -0800

At least three million tons of fishlike creatures could theoretically live and breathe on Europa, according to Professor Richard Greenberg of the University of Arizona in Tucson. Greenberg recently presented his findings to the Division for Planetary Sciences, American Astronomical Society (PDF, Google quick view). Greenberg has written about potential life on Europa before, but his recent calculations suggest that the concentrations of oxygen would be great enough to support not only microorganisms, but also more complex animal-like organisms which have greater oxygen demands. Water under the ice of Europa is the first step towards life on Europa. Life on Europa has been proposed before, even with potential Europa-like situations found on Earth at the Blood Falls of Antarctica (previously). Water could be warmed through the gravitational push and pull of Jupiter, generating huge planetary waves in Europa's submerged ocean. Galileo's expedition, which found several lines of evidence to support the theory that liquid oceans exist under Europa's icy surface, ended when it crashing into Jupiter to prevent lifeforms from Earth possibly infecting Europa. Jupiter Europa Orbiter is planned to launch February 2020, with a goal to explore Europa to investigate its habitability.

Jupiter under fire

flug — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:02:21 -0800

Sunday morning amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley captured a photo of an apparent asteroid or comet strike on Jupiter. Alerted by the announcement on the ALPO-Jupiter email list, other amateurs soon posted follow-up images. Coincidentally, the discovery came exactly fifteen years after Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter, leaving a series of black impact clouds similar to the one discovered by Wesley. If you're interested in keeping abreast of the latest observations of the planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, the Sun, the Moon, comets, minor planets, and so on each have their own page and email list on the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers web site. If you have a small telescope you can observe the impact yourself--Jupiter is perfectly placed for observing just now, rising about 10PM and setting about 8AM. Locater charts & info here. (Note that some of the Jupiter photos also show the shadow of a moon, which is close to perfectly circular and near Jupiter's equator. The impact crater is near the south pole, which is at the top of most images. The impact crater is dark, but not as dark as the moon's shadow, and slightly fuzzy.)

The Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum

Joe Beese — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 18:00:49 -0800

The mission of The Burt Reynolds & Friends Museum is to preserve the history of the cultural contributions of Burt Reynolds. (previously) We are at 100 North US Highway 1, on the Northwest corner of US1 and Indiantown Road across from Chili's. (previously)

Animation of Tvashtar Volcano Erupting on Io

brownpau — Tue, 15 May 2007 14:12:13 -0800

Tvashtar in Motion. Awesome five-frame GIF of fountaining sulfuric lava on Io courtesy New Horizons as it swung by Jupiter earlier this year. Found via Planetary Society Blog (Thank you, Emily). More on Tvashtar.

IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE!

loquacious — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 04:14:04 -0800

All these worlds are yours, save Europa. Attempt no landings he...llo! What the hell is wrong with you!? Did you just nuke Jupiter?

7 mph would be the equivalent of driving at the speed of light

jessamyn — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 07:23:22 -0800

At forty miles (64.4 km) from Pluto to Sun, the Maine Solar System Model is the largest complete three-dimensional scale model of the solar system in the world. What, you didn't know there was more than one? And yes, Pluto is staying put.

I am become Death

gsb — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 02:33:45 -0800

The Lucifer Project. "This is a documentation and study of the feasibility of creating a sustainable fusion reaction from an initial fission reaction on Saturn caused by a significant quantity of Plutonium-238 being inserted deep into the atmosphere." [via: del.icio.us/blackbeltjones]

Mysteries of Titan

KirkJobSluder — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 15:14:26 -0800

Saturn's enigmatic moon Titan holds on to its mysteries. Radar images reveal quite a bit of variation but no clear interpretation. The hazy atmosphere prevents the sudden shock of discovery that characterized the Voyager and Galileo flybys of the moons of Jupiter, revealing little more than fuzzy Rorschach blobs. With less than 1% of the surface mapped, researchers suspect that Titan has a young surface shaped by processes that have yet to be revealed.

This will seem quaint 10 years from now

euphorb — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 12:07:49 -0800

Wouldn't it be great if you could get the weather from a poorly synthesized computer-generated voice? Well, now you can. Call 1-888-573-8255 and ask Jupiter what the weather is like, or will be like, for nearly any city you want. (via Cool Tools)

Something wonderful

norm111 — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 09:39:07 -0800

Something wonderful
David Bowman: You see, something's going to happen. You must leave.
Dr. Heywood Floyd: What? What's gonna happen?
David Bowman: "Something wonderful.

Galileo Dies.

Ufez Jones — Tue, 16 Sep 2003 14:17:56 -0800

NASA's Official 'Galileo Dies' Page. Galileo is set to crash into Jupiter on Sunday. Responsible for many great images and tons of information, Galileo served well. Find a complete history of the Galileo mission here. Also, don't forget to watch the End of Mission webcast this Sunday at approx. 2 PM EST here.

KirkJobSluder — Sun, 03 Nov 2002 06:54:26 -0800

Swan song for a great explorer. Tomorow, the Galileo explorer will make a flyby of Jovian moon Amalthea ending pehaps the geatest unmanned mission in NASA history. Galileo telemetry may not survive the flyby having already receieved much more radiation than it was designed for. Even if it does survive, this will be its final orbit scheduled to crash into Jupiter in September of next year. In spite of antenna difficulties, the spacecraft returned many beautiful images of Jupiter's moons, along with coverage of the Shoemaker-Levy collision and the first atmospheric probe to decend into Jupiter's weather.

Mwongozi — Thu, 07 Mar 2002 16:29:51 -0800

Puzzling X-rays from Jupiter "We weren't surprised to find x-rays coming from Jupiter." Other observatories had done that years ago. The surprise is what Chandra has revealed for the very first time: the location of the beacon -- surprisingly close the planet's pole -- and the regular way it pulses. (Via Fark.)

skallas — Thu, 13 Dec 2001 19:17:12 -0800

Interesting hypothesis that Europa's seas are swimming with bacteria. Preliminary results show that all three species, the ordinary gut bacteria Escherichia coli, and extremophiles Deinococcus radiodurans and Sulfolobus shibatae, are just as good at explaining Europa's IR spectrum as the [magnesium sulphate] salts.

crasspastor — Sat, 22 Sep 2001 04:24:35 -0800

Cassini's just outside the orbit of Jupiter. Where is the space program in all of this? Have mundane zealots hobbled humanity's greatest feats to come? Should we be plotting ourselves to the stars now?

Steven Den Beste — Sat, 30 Dec 2000 22:52:26 -0800

Cassini makes Jupiter flyby on way to Saturn. They successfully made their pass, picking up considerable velocity necessary to make it out to Saturn. [More inside]