
The Brown University News Bureau
1997-1998 index
Distributed February 27, 1998
Contact: Scott Turner
NASA-Brown press briefing March 2
Scientists will present Galileo images suggesting water on Jupiter moon
At an 11 a.m. press briefing Monday, March 2, 1998, scientists from NASA and
Brown University will discuss new images of Jupiter's moon Europa taken by the
Galileo spacecraft. The images suggest water may exist below Europa's frozen
surface.
Scientists from Brown University and NASA will discuss the most finely
detailed images ever taken of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. The images add
weight to the idea that water is lurking beneath Europa's icy surface - an
intriguing possibility, because water is an essential ingredient for life.
- What
- Press briefing to release and discuss the significance of images from
the Jovian moon Europa. The scientists will analyze three key pieces of
evidence that lend support to the theory that an ocean exists below Europa's
frozen surface:
- A young crater named Pwyll (after a Celtic god) appears shallow, suggesting the original deep impact crater filled with slushy ice in the last 10 million years.
- Large plates of ice and iceberg-like structures appear to be suspended on a crusty surface of slush.
- Gaps between plates of ice appear to have moved apart and filled in with partially melted ice.
- Who
- James W. Head III, Brown University, co-investigator of Galileo imaging
team
- Mike Belton, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Galileo team leader
- Robert Pappalardo, Brown University, Galileo team associate
- Geoff Collins, Brown University, Galileo team associate
- Louise Prockter, Brown University, Galileo team associate
- Jay Bergstralh, NASA, Galileo Europa mission program scientist
- Where
- Room 001, Salomon Center for Teaching, Brown University, Providence,
RI
- When
- 11 a.m. Monday, March 2, 1998
- Contacts
- For directions or information: Scott Turner or Carol Morton at (401)
863-2476.
- Images
- Color slides and black-and-white prints of Europa's surface will be
available at the press briefing and at NASA's web site:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov or
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. Video images will be available on NASA
television, broadcast on GE-2, transponder 9C, C-Band, 85 degrees West
longitude, 3880.0 MHz frequency, vertical polarization, 6.8 MHz audio
(monaural). The video will air Monday at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and
midnight EST.
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97-090a
Related documents:
97-090 -- News release describing Europe images
97-090c -- Captions for Europa images distributed March 2, 1998
97-090f -- Fact sheet about the Europa images