BBC News - Liquid lakes close to moon's skin
Study author Britney Schmidt says life may exist on EuropaScientists have found the best evidence yet for water just beneath the surface of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa.Analysis of the moon's surface suggests plumes of warmer water well up beneath its icy shell, melting and fracturing the outer layers.
The results, published in the journal Nature, predict that small lakes exist only 3km below the crust.
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It would be so cool to experience somethin' like this. I'm not sure it's a good idea to go drillin' around Europa all willy-nilly, exploitin' it for resources and engaging in all that general ass-hattery, but to go there on a scientific expedition to learn about it and ourselves, and maybe to think about developing it thoughtfully as an outpost and probably eventually another home if it's current inhabitants, however small or unimaginably large, don't object, how cool would that be? (And here's a thought to those who are general ass-hats; a much surer and more secure way to occupying a foreign land is to approach with respect and take their thoughts, feelings, and ideas into consideration as we go, perhaps acknowledge that other life is inherently intelligent on some level regardless of how much or how little it may look like what we deem as such, and be willing to take 'no' for an answer. Take a cue from network marketing and realize that it's not a yes or no question. We exist, change is inevitable, we as a specie will live where they are eventually, and vice versa. "Can we live here?" is not the same question as, "Can we live here now?" For that matter, just asking politely with a, "May I?", instead might help from time to time. "Can we?" asks if we're able - we're able to do anything we want, or we will be at some point whether anyone likes it or not - where "May we?" asks if they mind. We tend to assume that what we don't know can't possibly know as much as us, and it seems to me that adjusting that assumption toward assuming that we can learn something from anyone, or anything, in existence would save us all the trouble of deciding who or what classifies as a 'human' or as we define it 'intelligent' being and having to constantly adjust the limits of that definition, usually publicly and with much {rightful} embarrassment on the part of those arrogant enough to do the defining. Of course, thinking that way requires that we adjust our definition of 'rights' as well, but that's not so difficult. If you can do, and you want to do it, and your doing it doesn't impinge upon the ability of others to function as they see fit, then all power to ya in your doings. If you impinge, life will impinge upon you, perhaps in the form of me. Yes, it does require for the hunter or meat farmer or spider-killin' housewife to decide that he or she believes that when he or she takes a life it's as it should be between them, it is what they contracted together before their respective lifetimes, and it does require for those who believe that the animal's right to life is greater than the right of a human to hunt or harvest or stomp bugs to decide how strongly their opinion must be put forth and whether they'll make the sensible decision to draw the line at sharing opinions, not seeking to enforce them or bringing down the wrath of their communities upon themselves by crossing into inappropriate behavioral territory, or for the animals to find ways to speak for themselves - Mad Cow Dis-Ease anyone? Marauding polar and grizzly bears? Disappearing honeybees? Crazed gunmen shooting up schools and workplaces and banks and neighborhoods so regularly they're not even front-page news anymore? - but those things aren't so hard to do and the rest is easy. Catching more flies with honey than vinegar is all well and good, but I don't want to catch flies. I want to cultivate relationships in which the inhabitants of Jupiter and his moon welcome us with open arms, hearts, and minds, and we them.)
I apologize for the run-on parenthetical statement. :)
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