europa

n=1


a: Europa ~
b: a cue ball

What:

Lipps says many scientists thought the solar radiation is "too fierce for life to exist on the surface... we'd last about 2 minutes." This is because scientists thought "Europa is like a cue ball: smooth. But it's not." Europa is covered in cracks and crevices, caverns and boulders and overhangs. "It's geologically extremely variable," says Lipps, providing life with plenty of places protected from the extreme radiation. "It only takes a meter and a half of ice to damp out that radiation." So life could potentially live just a meter and a half below the icy skin of Europa--essentially on the surface. And this, says Lipps, "freaks [people] out."


Useful?
Writer: Jere H. Lipps
LCC:
Where:
Date: Oct 8 2014 9:47 AM



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METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.