Europa has always held a fascination to me. I think it’s the concept of a world with a sub-surface ocean and the possibility of life that has inspired me and many others. In September 2022, NASAs Juno spacecraft made a flyby, coming within 355 kilometres of the surface. Since the encounter, scientists have been exploring the images and have identified regions where brine may have bubbled to the surface. Other images revealed possible, previously unidentified steep-walled depressions up to 50km wide, this could be caused by a free-floating ocean!  Juno was launched to Jupiter on 5 August 2011. It took off from the Cape Canaveral site on board an Atlas V rocket and travelled around 3 billion kilometres. It arrived at Jupiter on 4 July 2016 and in September 2022 made its closest flyby of Europa. The frozen world is the second of the four Galilean satellites that were discovered by Galileo over 400 years ago. Visible in small telescopes, the true nature of the moon is only detectable by visiting craft like Juno.  Artist’s impression of NASA’s Galileo space probe in orbit of Jupiter. Credit: NASA During its close fly-by, one of the onboard cameras known as Juno-Cam took the highest resolution images of the moon since Galileo took a flyby in 2000. The images supported the long held theory that the icy crusts at the north and south poles are not where they used to be. Another instrument on board, known as the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), revealed possible activity resembling plumes where brine may have bubbled to the surface.  The ground track over Europa that was followed by Juno enabled imaging around the equatorial regions. The images revealed the usual, expected blocks of ice, walls, ridges and scarps but also found something else. Steep walled depressions that measured 20 to 50 kilometres across were also seen and they resembled large ovoid pits.  One of Juno’s enormous solar panels, unfurled on Earth. NASA/JPL. SWrI The observations of the meanderings of the north/south polar ice and the varied surface features all point towards an outer icy shell that is free-floating upon the sub surface ocean.  This can only happen if the outer shell is not connected to the rocky interior. When this happens, there are high levels of stress on the ice which then causes the fracture pattern witnessed. The images represent the first time such patterns have been seen in the southern hemisphere, the first evidence of true polar wandering.  The images from the SRU surprisingly provided the best quality images. It was originally designed to detect faint light from stars for navigation. Instead, the team used it to capture images when Europa was illuminated by the gentle glow of sunlight reflected from Jupiter. It was quite a novel approach and allowed complex features to become far more pronounced than before. Intricate networks of ridges criss-crossing the surface were identified along with dark stains from water plumes. One feature in particular stood out, nicknamed ‘the Platypus’, it was a 37 kilometre by 67 kilometre region shaped somewhat like a platypus.  Source : NASA’s Juno Provides High-Definition Views of Europa’s Icy Shell The post Juno Reveals Secrets About Europa’s Icy Surface appeared first on Universe Today.

Interstellar space, here we come.

This might be key to life beyond Earth?

"Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney," says Gov. Greg Abbott.

"I don’t think I’ve ever seen a star cooperating witness get his knees chopped out quite as clearly and dramatically as what just happened with Michael Cohen."

"Blood-curdling screams and the bodycam footage that made even the most seasoned shake at the LA County Sheriff's Department"

A recent study claims that the pyramids of Giza were constructed alongside an almost 40-mile long artery of the Nile river that no longer exists today.

A thought-provoking meme is going viral on Reddit that has people debating over who to give your seat to on a train: a mother holding a baby, an elderly woman with a cane, or a man on crutches. The poor guy dealing with the dilemma appears to be traveling to or from work with a briefcase in his hand.As everyone knows, it’s a common courtesy on a packed train or bus to give up your seat to people with babies, the elderly and those who are disabled or injured. So, in this scenario, everyone has a right to the seat; who is the most deserving?The woman with the baby has her hands full and her little one is sleeping. It’d be nice for the man to give her a stable seat to take a load off and help the baby sleep throughout the ride. Plus, nobody wants to ride the train next to a cranky baby.The elderly woman also deserves the seat because she is probably tired and needs to take a load off. She gets extra points because, as a society, we tend to go out of our way to help seniors. What would happen if she fell while standing on the moving train?Finally, the guy with the crutches also deserves the seat because he has to expend a lot of effort just to stand up and his arms have to be tired from helping him get around with the bum foot.One guy thought the man should let the 3 people looking to take his seat decide. "It's better to just get up and let them fight amongst themselves,” Kron123456789 wrote. "Leave the seat and leave the decision to the three,” Aggravating-Pound598 added.Others thought that the 3 people staring at the seat appear angry and don’t deserve the seat. "If they're looking at me like this, they better keep standing 'cause I ain't going anywhere,” falsebaby8268 wrote. "They don't have any right to the seat, it's only out of generosity that someone can offer the seat. You are not obligated to generosity in general and towards hostile people in special,” gerMean added.Some thought that all things being equal, the person with the best attitude should get the seat. "The politest person gets the seat,” Logical_Dragonfly_92 wrote. "If they all look at me with such arrogant expressions of entitlement, I'd keep my seat for myself. Otherwise, I give it to the person that seems most in danger or in pain of them,” AhmedAbuGhadeer added.There were more than a few people who thought the man on crutches was most deserving of the seat but were weirded out by his uncanny resemblance to Adolph Hitler. "Honestly, crutches Hitler probably needs it most, from a medical POV. Falling on a broken leg is no bueno. Mamma and grandma got 2 feet,” BadluckBrians wrote. "If you don’t want to fall on a broken leg, you probably shouldn’t have attacked Poland in 1939," Understepped added.This person may have the best response."I'd offer to a lady with an infant as this will help two people," Barneyishere1 suggested.The man's dilemma in the meme seems like the Kobayashi Maru on “Star Trek,” a test that Starfleet Academy cadets take to determine how they would behave in a situation without a solution or a “no-win” scenario. "The purpose [of the test] is to experience fear, fear in the face of certain death, to accept that fear and maintain control of one's self and one's crew. This is a quality expected in every Starfleet captain,” Mr. Spock once said.According to Spock, behaving correctly and maintaining control is the key to coming out ahead in a situation where you can’t win. If we extend that logic to the problem our friend on the train faces, being that there is no right or wrong answer, the key is to handle it with as much poise as possible. And then hop off the train at the next exit.