Europa - The Ocean Moon

Search for an Alien Biosphere

Richard Greenberg

Europa ­ The Ocean Moon tells the story of the Galileo spacecraft probe to Jupiteršs moon, Europa. It provides a detailed description of the physical processes, including the dominating tidal forces, that operate on Europa, and includes a comprehensive tour of Europa using images taken by Galileošs camera.

The book then reviews and evaluates the interpretive work carried out to date, providing a philosophical discussion of the scientific process of analysing results and the pitfalls that accompany it. This discussion is integrated into an hypothesis of what Europa is like, with an examination of the astrobiological constraints on this possible biosphere, and implications for future research, exploration, and planetary biological protection.

Europa ­ The Ocean Moon

• provides a unique understanding of the Galileo images of Europa
• discusses the theory of tidal processes that govern its icy ridged and disrupted surface
• examines in detail the physical setting that might sustain extra-terrestrial life in Europašs ocean and icy crust

Table of Contents:

• List of figures
• Preface
  
  Part One: Discovering Europa
  1. Water World
  2. Touring the surface
  3. Politics and intellect: Converting images into ideas and knowledge
  
  
  Part Two: Tides
  4. Tides and resonance
  5. Tides and rotation
  6. Tides and stress
  7. Tidal heating
  8. Tides and orbital evolution
  
  
  Part Three: Understanding Europa
  9. Global cracking and non-synchronous rotation
  10. Building ridges
  11. Dilation of cracks
  12. Strike - slip
  13. Return to Astypalaea
  14. Cycloids
  15. Rotation revisited
  16. Chaos
  17. Crust convergence
  18. The scars of impact
  19. Pits and uplifts
  
  
  Part four: life on Earth and Europa
  20. The bandwagon
  21. The biosphere
  22. The exploration to come
  
  
  
• References
• Index

Extent: 416 pages
Binding: Hardback
Publication Date: December 2004
ISBN: 978-3-540-22450-1

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