Re: Why Water??

["Scott Schrade" <schrade@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Water is one of the essential elements of life.   I'm told
> that our planet is one of the only places in our solar system
> to have it in liquid form.  Scott, please check me on that.

Well, both Mars & Venus may have had water in the past.
We must remember that the solar system is 4.5 billion years
old.  And it evolves & changes over time.

That said, today we know water exists on Earth, of course,
but there is strong evidence that water may also exist on
two of Jupiter's largest moons: Europa & Callisto.

How could liquid water exist out near Jupiter, so far away
from heat-giving sunlight?  Because tidal forces caused by
massive Jupiter & its many moons make Europa & Callisto 
stretch & release - the same effect our own Moon (with some 
help from the Sun) has on Earth's oceans, causing them to 
swell & release - what we call our oceanic tides.

This stretching & releasing of Europa & Callisto causes 
their interiors to heat up - like when you bend a wire back
& forth.

It's this internal heat, caused by tidal forces, that creates
enough energy for liquid water to exist way out in the solar
system, far from the energy-giving Sun.

Also, celestial bodies that contain liquid water give off a
very tell-tale magnetic field.  Orbiting satellites have dis-
covered such magnetic fields around Europa & Callisto.

Finally (whew!), these oceans are sealed under a layer
of ice, which *does not* rule out the possibility that they
harbor forms of life.  Life exists in the deepest depths
of our oceans here on Earth.  

So, it is possible that these ice-covered oceans, located
on two moons of the massive planet Jupiter, far out in our 
solar system, may indeed contain life.

And people say science is cold, unfeeling, & without
beauty & wonder.  Hrumph!


- SCHRADE in Akron

Man is the interpreter of nature; science the right interpretation.
    - William Whewell, 1840