Water, water everywhere... on Europa
Scientists have long believed Jupiter's icy moon of Europa hides a global ocean of water.
And now new research has shown there might be a lot more of glorious H2O on the the big marble than first though.
Richard Greenberg, from the University of Arizona, also says Europa boasts a hundred times the amount of oxygen than originally thought, which increases the chances of life big time.
He's been looking at the moon's smooth and cracked surface which is only about 50 million years old (around one per cent the age of the solar system).
This surface is continually renewed and offers evidence of an oxygen-rich ocean capable of not only supporting simple life, but more complex organisms akin to small marine life on our own planet.
So it's time to cut a hole in that ice and fish for some extraterrestrial haddock.
We'll have a wait, though. The Europa Jupiter System Mission - a joint NASA/ESA spacecraft - isn't set for lift-off until 2020.
Japan and Russia also want in on the explorer, which would also take a close look at the moon Ganymede (which might also have a sub-surface ocean) as well.
Can't wait!
To finish off, here are some factoids about Europa.
With a diameter of 3,138km, Europa is slightly smaller than our own Moon.
Europa is the smoothest object in the solar system. The satellite has a mostly flat surface, with nothing exceeding 1km in height.
A tenous atmosphere of oxygen has been detected on the moon.
It was discovered in 1610 by Galileo.
Weird Science Facoid: More people die during an economic boom than in a bust. Ever cloud has a silver lining.
Join the Weird Science Facebook group here, or follow us on Twitter here or by searching for weirdsciblog.
Want to be sent the 'best' of the Weird Sci Blog every month? Then sign up for Weird News - a newsletter containing more info about the subjects we cover, plus some extra stuff that didn't make the blog. Interested? Subscribe by e-mailing wscience@me.com with the title 'count me in' and we'll do the rest.
Older/Newer
Authors
Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
