Unmasking Europa
Subtitle: The Search for Life on Jupiter's Ocean Moon
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Praxis
Published: July 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 276
ISBN-13: 9780387479361
Subjects: Mathematics and Science; Reference works; Science: General Issues; Science; Science/Mathematics; Astronomy - General; Astrophysics & Space Science; Earth Sciences - Geology; Science / Astronomy; alien biosphere; icy moon; science and politics; thin skin; Reference
Description: The second-outward of Jupiter's four major moons, Europa is covered with ice, as confirmed in views from modern telescopes and the thousands of images returned by NASA's Voyager and Galileo missions. But these higher-resolution views also showed that the ice is anything but smooth. In fact, Europa's surface is covered with vast criss-crossing systems of mountain-sized ridges, jumbled regions of seemingly chaotic terrain, and patches that suggest upwellings of new surface materials from below. How scientists think about the underlying forces that shaped this incredibly complex, bizarre, and beautiful surface is the subject of this book.