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Aperiodic reminder that Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus has a subsurface liquid water ocean that it's blasting into space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill (@kevinmgill.bsky.social)

Nick Kellett

@nickkellett.bsky.social

4 Aug

Including complex organic chemicals! One day we might find life there

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

4 Aug

I'd be shocked if we did. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comLittle to no active faulting likely at Europa’s seafloor today - Nature CommunicationsIn this study, the authors model the current mechanical properties of the seafloor of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, and find those rocks to be too strong to allow the kind of fracturing that, on Earth, e...

Nick Kellett

@nickkellett.bsky.social

4 Aug

Tidal heating from Saturn's gravity as a heat source?

Nick Kellett

@nickkellett.bsky.social

4 Aug

Ah I see it's covered in your study. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing!

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

I think these locales are not promising for life, at least not today. And Enceladus is *so* small, even the modern chemical reactions taking place there have a big hill to climb to support abiogenesis, much less sustain it.

4/8/26, 2:37 am0 reposts1 like

Nick Kellett

@nickkellett.bsky.social

4 Aug

What do you think about Europa?

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

4 Aug

Dead as a doornail today. Might have had some action back in the day, but the problem then isn't so much supporting an ecosystem, it's keeping it going over geological time.

Nick Kellett

@nickkellett.bsky.social

4 Aug

Makes sense altho the sci fi fan in me is in deep denial. Thanks for responding!

Paul Byrne

@theplanetaryguy.com

4 Aug

My pleasure!