Benthic Bio - The Places On Earth Where Everything Interesting Happens
"I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea." - Anthony Doerr
If all goes according to plan, October 2024 will see the launch of NASA's Europa Clipper. It will have a dry mass of 3,241 kg, will power itself with solar panels, and will spend four years peering into the deep of Jupiter's moon Europa.
My favorite of the Galilean moons, Europa is one of the most promising places in our solar system where we might find life. Its surface is composed mostly of water ice and beneath it, respirating with tides caused by the immense gravitational pull of Jupiter, is an ocean. A biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig ocean. Deep, deep down at the bottom of this ocean, scientists may find hydrothermal activity - the same sort of hydrothermal activity that here, on earth, harbors (HAHA) some of the most interesting life on the planet. I'm biased, though.
This section of my website will not be about microscopic aliens in the oceans of foreign moons; it'll be about the funky little dudes living in the depths of our own blue marble. I brought up Europa to spur your imagination. Show you what inspired me. Behold our own benthic neighbors, and imagine what their cousins on distant worlds might look like!
Or maybe they won't be cousins, and instead they'll be forbidden lovers or something. Maybe eels on Europa and eels on Earth meet up every other Tuesday to smoke and kiss on the lips. We won't judge, as long as it isn't both.
Once it concludes its mission, the Europa Clipper probe will likely be disposed of by crashing it into the surface of Ganymede.
note: information above sourced from nasa.gov and wikipedia.
note again: the word "benthic" refers specifically to the bottom of a body of water, as in the seafloor, but that's not all i'll be talking about. that's just where my favorites live. it also made for a snappy title!
