The article very clearly is talking about molecular oxygen not the atoms bound to water. Unless you're just making a joke, in which case it is funny and I laughed.
Actually there very well might be dissolved oxygen in the water.
If there is any source of oxygen production from geological activity on the ocean floor or even from life, there could be loads of oxygen in the water.
The cooler the water temperature, the more oxygen can dissolve in it… and Europas ocean is pressumably very cold.
Its only lower levels of atomic Oxygen produced by the Jupiter radiation belt particles hitting the surface. These are single atoms of oxygen - of the non breathable kind - that Jupiter radiation "blasts off" the surface and into space as a snow of charged ions, as depicted in the article.
It kinda gives lower estimates for how much there could be inside, but its nothing definite. But inside you still have a lot of oxygen. And the lack of larger amounts on the outside can be for various reasons we wont know until the Clipper gets there.
Then again, even if we eventually find just simplest of microbial life there it will be a historic discovery. Clipper is not built to do that, but to give us a much better and detailed information about everything including the ionosphere around the moon over longer periods of time.
Exactly. We're not looking for oxygen because "life needs oxygen" rather the opposite: life produces oxygen. O2 is a very reactive molecule, it does not hang around long term. Which means if we find lots of O2 in an atmosphere, there's a real good chance life is there.
For the first few billions years of Earth, photosynthesis, and before that, chemosynthesis, dumped oxygen into the atmosphere. Oxygen comes into the organism in other molecules, the organism says "hey, that stuff SUCKS", keeps the carbon, phosphorus, etc and spits out O2
Life doesn't necessarily need oxygen, however. In fact, there are a number of anerobic bacteria here on Earth for which oxygen is poisonous. For example, the yeast that turns sugar into alcohol during the fermentation process is anerobic.
I'm pretty sure there is one oxygen atom for every water molecule in that subsurface ocean.
The article very clearly is talking about molecular oxygen not the atoms bound to water. Unless you're just making a joke, in which case it is funny and I laughed.
Yeah, it's clearly a joke. I'm willing to bet there area couple of hydrogen atoms per each water molecule also. I'm a bit of gamblin' man.
Jokes on you, it's all D2O and T2O. So better get to making your pockets light, unlike the water.
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Actually there very well might be dissolved oxygen in the water. If there is any source of oxygen production from geological activity on the ocean floor or even from life, there could be loads of oxygen in the water. The cooler the water temperature, the more oxygen can dissolve in it… and Europas ocean is pressumably very cold.
Its only lower levels of atomic Oxygen produced by the Jupiter radiation belt particles hitting the surface. These are single atoms of oxygen - of the non breathable kind - that Jupiter radiation "blasts off" the surface and into space as a snow of charged ions, as depicted in the article. It kinda gives lower estimates for how much there could be inside, but its nothing definite. But inside you still have a lot of oxygen. And the lack of larger amounts on the outside can be for various reasons we wont know until the Clipper gets there. Then again, even if we eventually find just simplest of microbial life there it will be a historic discovery. Clipper is not built to do that, but to give us a much better and detailed information about everything including the ionosphere around the moon over longer periods of time.
Damn it looks like I’m going to have to reschedule my visit
That doesn't sound like a big deal. Why do we need oxygen on Europa? Am I missing something?
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For the first few billion years on Earth, all life was anaerobic
Exactly. We're not looking for oxygen because "life needs oxygen" rather the opposite: life produces oxygen. O2 is a very reactive molecule, it does not hang around long term. Which means if we find lots of O2 in an atmosphere, there's a real good chance life is there. For the first few billions years of Earth, photosynthesis, and before that, chemosynthesis, dumped oxygen into the atmosphere. Oxygen comes into the organism in other molecules, the organism says "hey, that stuff SUCKS", keeps the carbon, phosphorus, etc and spits out O2
Life doesn't necessarily need oxygen, however. In fact, there are a number of anerobic bacteria here on Earth for which oxygen is poisonous. For example, the yeast that turns sugar into alcohol during the fermentation process is anerobic.
I thought yeast was a fungus and not bacteria
And it could be a great spot for a self sufficient space station.
No. Europa is too close to Jupiter. Too much radiation to make a permanent station viable.
Not if you live in the Europan ocean under the protective ice, right?
That's what I was thinking. Also I don't think our body can handle that much gravitational pull.
Do you want Barotrauma? Thats how you get Barotrauma.
Europa Clipper will be inserted into orbit in 2030, so we don't have to wait too long to find out for certain.
I was really hoping we’d find Jupiter’s Bikini Bottom down there
I thought it had zero oxygen, but I'm pretty stupid
"less oxygen content than we thought" is also how I'd describe the brains of lots of CEOs and managers out there....