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am_Unition  ·  2775 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Enceladus could support life

I'm not sure what internet forums you're on where people are correct about the Jovian magnetosphere. Cool, though. :)

So yes, you are absolutely right, Europa should have some exposure to Jupiter's radiation belts, although they're not drawn-in, above. It looks like they're showing the orbits in the midnight meridian cross section. I would also like to see a cross section of the orbits on the day side, where the magnetosphere is compressed.

The radiation would make it even slightly more difficult to live on the surface, I was already envisioning a subterranean colony because of the near-vacuum conditions at the surface. There might be some cavities several tens of kilometers down where you could even take your helmets off! Who knows?

Funny story (not really). The whole point of NASA's Juno mission is planetary science, but they're stuck in an orbit* that's much more ideal for mapping the magnetosphere. So now, I think everyone's happy they decided to spring for the plasma sensors that piggybacked along. If you're going to send a spacecraft to Jupiter, attaching another couple of instruments should be pretty cheap, right?

*Somehow, the ten thousand review panelists didn't think to ask a relatively simple question. I think that's all I will say.

Edit:

Lol, yeah, that's how it went.