Jupiter's moon Europa...

is target for possible NASA lander.  Why?  "Europa, I think, is the premier place to go for extant life" said one scientist.

But apparently NASA didn't get the message about not landing there.

Mission to Europa...

has been given priority status by NASA and the European Space Agency.  The proposed Europa Jupiter System Mission will launch no sooner than 2020, and it unfortunately does not include a lander.  Despite the mission's name, Io's dynamic sulfur-spewing volcanoes will also be investigated by the orbiters.

Scientists go 'gaga'...

to find creatures beneath 600 feet of ice.

Is this a preview of what we might find on Europa?

Ice jam on the Colorado River...

shown above is evocative of the icy surface of Europa, one of the many moons of Jupiter, as shown below.

(Click each image to enlarge.) Note, in both cases, the larger blocks of ice that have separated and rotated, then frozen within a slushy matrix.

Excellent technical paper: Evidence for a subsurface ocean on Europa (.pdf file).

Jovian Eden...

on Europa? Article: Europa Capable of Supporting Life, Scientist Says. The global ice-covered ocean, coupled with an abundance of oxygen, could provide optimum conditions for life.

Link to abstract.

Image courtesy NASA.

Preparing for a robotic visit...

to a distant moon: Landing sites on Europa identified.

Faster, please.

Extremophiles rule...

other worlds, most likely. I've always held a fascination for creatures able to adapt to seemingly hostile environments (hostile at least to us.) Here's a press release describing new discoveries related to tube worms that populate hydrothermal vents on the deep ocean floor. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find comparable organisms thriving in the ice-covered ocean of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, clustered around similar hot springs.