Richard Greenberg (2)

Fascinating non-fiction book about Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter, and about the scientific process of understanding and publicising the findings of the Voyager and Galileo probes to the Jovian system.

Greenberg outlines how he and his group strongly contend the NASA consensus about Europa, which is that there is a sub-surface ocean beneath an icy crust tens of kilometres thick. Greenberg’s group, in contrast, say that the crust is at most a few kilometres thick, and more importantly, that the ocean is regularly in contact with the surface, opening up cracks and melting patches of ice.

The implications of this for the possible existence of life on Europa, and our chances of detecting it, are very important. But Greenberg shows how the political process (yes, there is politics in scientific research!) instead pushed aside his group’s conclusions and enforced a different view of a deep ocean which only remotely interacts with the surface.

Time and further expeditions will reveal the truth, of course. But Greenberg’s evidence is very persuasive. It’s a fascinating study in itself of how scientific research sometimes proceeds.… (mer)