Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Constraints on icy ocean worlds

Europa Clipper's coming; but it's looking much like they won't find anything to send back. "Attempt no landing there" indeed.

The assumption was that Europa's mantle would be under similar squeezes as Io's. That would depend on how stiff those rocks are. We have a few constraints on those rocks nobody can see under so much water: the mass of the world overall, and the radius of the mantle. It turns out the mantle is likely under a lot of pressure, even given the low gravity on this moon's oceanfloor. Too much pressure to allow such cracks as we see under Earth's seafloors.

No ocean venting means no nutrients get added to the ocean. Europa has had boring 4.5 billions.

Clipper is still a good mission, despite my disputes with the trajectory. The mission stands to refine parameter-space. There may be hope in the three Laplacian moons shifting in and out of eccentricity; in peak times maybe Europa did get a little subsurface rumblings. Also, I dunno, maybe some life has figured out how to cling to the surface ice - close enough to ingest Io's nutrients, not close enough for the radiation.

Bit of a stretch mayhap.

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