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Unmasking Europa - The search for life on Jupiter's ocean moon
Jupiter's ice moon Europa is widely regarded as the most likely place to find extraterrestrial life. This book tells the engaging story of Europa, the oceanic moon. It features a large number of stunning images of the ocean moon’s surface, clearly displaying the spectacular crack patterns, extensive rifts and ridges, and refrozen pools of exposed water filled with rafts of displaced ice. Coverage also features firsthand accounts of Galileo’s mission to Jupiter and its moons. The book tells the rough and tumble inside story of a very human enterprise in science that lead to the discovery of a fantastic new world that might well harbor life.
277 pages, Hardcover
First published August 5, 2007
7 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
Richard Greenberg
38 books20 followersRichard Greenberg was an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He had more than 25 plays premiere on Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway in New York City and eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, California, including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last. Greenberg is perhaps best known for his 2002 play Take Me Out.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 18, 2010
The book presents a “minority report” on the structure of the frozen moon of Jupiter Europa, based on the images sent by the Galileo space mission. Greenberg and his research team are the most vocal proponents of the view that Europa is covered by a thin (a few kms) ice layer above a deep ocean, and he presents his arguments in great, often convincing detail. He also reports about his bitter fight against the "canonical view" of the "party line", which advocates a thick (several tens of kms) ice layer. The main issue here is whether life forms are likely to exist in Europa’s ocean, and a thin ice layer that allows for interactions between the ocean and Europa’s surface makes the development of oceanic life much more likely. Future space missions will search for life in Europa's ocean. While science has always advanced through the confrontation of minds, the fight between Greenberg and main stream scientists must have left some widely open scars, as Greenberg is not among the invited authors of the monumental “Europa” volume (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55...) recently published by the University of Arizona Press and edited by “party line” scientists.
May 17, 2018
Excellent primer on the physical nature of Europa. There's some speculation towards the end about life, but this book is mostly about the science of the moon's geological features, and the politics of the thin-ice/thick-ice debate. Indirectly, the book is a fascinating look at incentives and power dynamics in big science projects.
March 3, 2020
Bearing in mind that Greenberg sits firmly on one side of the thin/permeable vs. thick/non-permeable ice debate (you can hardly forget it), and acknowledging that this is merely his side of the story, Unmasking Europa is an excellent book. I read Greenberg’s book in small bits over a couple of months, so his ranting (which some might consider repetitive) didn’t annoy me. On the contrary, I loved it. It’s entertaining, educational, and wonderfully cynical. And despite the subheading, Unmasking Europa is not about astrobiology.
I’m a planetary geologist by training (but firmly out of the academia, and have only worked on rocky bodies, so I have only read a handful of papers about Europa and, therefore, I don’t have a predetermined mindset about the thickness of the crust of Europa), and got to see from afar how some of this stuff works. And as it’s a small field, I know some of the players mentioned in the book. I’d like to think I’m fairly objective, but some might consider me a cynic. Anyway, with that background, I found myself consistently nodding in agreement while reading. (Big) science is often a dirty game as Greenberg so entertainingly explains, and certainly not always (ever?) a pure “quest for truth”.
If I was a university lecturer teaching planetary geology, I’d make Unmasking Europa mandatory reading, and I’d build a course around it. I’d make the students dig up the original research papers and the images and see for themselves which set of arguments is the more convincing one (or, better yet, come up with an alternative hypothesis). One obviously gets somewhat biased while reading a book like this, but to me Greenberg’s geologic arguments, in the way he presents them in the book, are quite compelling. In any case I learned quite a bit.
One thing I loved was Greenberg’s bashing of Nature and Science. He’s absolutely correct. Nowadays of course there are usually tens of pages of online supplements where the details are explained (sometimes properly, sometimes not), so the situation has somewhat improved. But the way the (science) media treats papers published in Nature or Science is just plain naïve (or purposefully misleading, I don’t quite know which). Scientists know how the publishing game is played, and I would think any good science journalist knows that too, but I’m sure the general public are ignorant about it. Regarding the Nature/Science game, Greenberg offers a healthy dose of cynicism.
One thing I didn’t appreciate was the lack of references. Greenberg complains about many papers, but just tells the reader to go online or buy his other book on Europa to find the actual references. That sucks.
If it was up to me, every aspiring planetary geologist and science journalist would read Greenberg’s book. For the rest of us interested in (planetary) science it is strongly recommended but, in my opinion, only 15-20 pages at a time, and keeping in mind that it’s not an objective view of the debate.
I’m a planetary geologist by training (but firmly out of the academia, and have only worked on rocky bodies, so I have only read a handful of papers about Europa and, therefore, I don’t have a predetermined mindset about the thickness of the crust of Europa), and got to see from afar how some of this stuff works. And as it’s a small field, I know some of the players mentioned in the book. I’d like to think I’m fairly objective, but some might consider me a cynic. Anyway, with that background, I found myself consistently nodding in agreement while reading. (Big) science is often a dirty game as Greenberg so entertainingly explains, and certainly not always (ever?) a pure “quest for truth”.
If I was a university lecturer teaching planetary geology, I’d make Unmasking Europa mandatory reading, and I’d build a course around it. I’d make the students dig up the original research papers and the images and see for themselves which set of arguments is the more convincing one (or, better yet, come up with an alternative hypothesis). One obviously gets somewhat biased while reading a book like this, but to me Greenberg’s geologic arguments, in the way he presents them in the book, are quite compelling. In any case I learned quite a bit.
One thing I loved was Greenberg’s bashing of Nature and Science. He’s absolutely correct. Nowadays of course there are usually tens of pages of online supplements where the details are explained (sometimes properly, sometimes not), so the situation has somewhat improved. But the way the (science) media treats papers published in Nature or Science is just plain naïve (or purposefully misleading, I don’t quite know which). Scientists know how the publishing game is played, and I would think any good science journalist knows that too, but I’m sure the general public are ignorant about it. Regarding the Nature/Science game, Greenberg offers a healthy dose of cynicism.
One thing I didn’t appreciate was the lack of references. Greenberg complains about many papers, but just tells the reader to go online or buy his other book on Europa to find the actual references. That sucks.
If it was up to me, every aspiring planetary geologist and science journalist would read Greenberg’s book. For the rest of us interested in (planetary) science it is strongly recommended but, in my opinion, only 15-20 pages at a time, and keeping in mind that it’s not an objective view of the debate.
June 15, 2024
I hesitated to buy this book at first, because some reviews make it sound like a pulpit for the author to ridicule his opponents. However, although the author doesn't egregiously insult his colleagues. He does make some serious accusations, e.g. that a named person presented someone else's work as his own (i.e. plagiarism), but ones which are verifiable.
Europa is one of the places in our solar system which is most likely to sustain life. It has a large amount of liquid water: roughly the same as Earth, despite being only about the size of our Moon. The reason it's liquid, rather than ice, is because of tides, and hence heat, induced by the gravity of Jupiter and its other moons.
The author's theory is that the icy crust of Europa is thin enough to allow cracks to penetrate as far as the inner ocean, and occasional melt-through to the surface. The competing theory is that the ice is so thick that liquid water is never exposed.
The author presents convincing explanations for features of the surface of Europa, including enormous and beautiful cycloid-shaped cracks that can be more that 1000km in length.
Although the “search for life” aspect is kind of a hook, although, as a celestial mechanician, this is not the author's specialty. Most of the book is applied physics, not biology.
Some of the author's criticisms apply to big science in general. To get funding, a story needs to be told, and then alternative stories are deprecated, even if they explain the data better.
The author claims that some of the most important breakthroughs have come from people who were prompted to reanalyse existing images ahead a new mission. Hence he challenges the field to make the most of existing data rather than pining for a big new project.
Overall an enjoyable and thought provoking book.
Europa is one of the places in our solar system which is most likely to sustain life. It has a large amount of liquid water: roughly the same as Earth, despite being only about the size of our Moon. The reason it's liquid, rather than ice, is because of tides, and hence heat, induced by the gravity of Jupiter and its other moons.
The author's theory is that the icy crust of Europa is thin enough to allow cracks to penetrate as far as the inner ocean, and occasional melt-through to the surface. The competing theory is that the ice is so thick that liquid water is never exposed.
The author presents convincing explanations for features of the surface of Europa, including enormous and beautiful cycloid-shaped cracks that can be more that 1000km in length.
Although the “search for life” aspect is kind of a hook, although, as a celestial mechanician, this is not the author's specialty. Most of the book is applied physics, not biology.
Some of the author's criticisms apply to big science in general. To get funding, a story needs to be told, and then alternative stories are deprecated, even if they explain the data better.
The author claims that some of the most important breakthroughs have come from people who were prompted to reanalyse existing images ahead a new mission. Hence he challenges the field to make the most of existing data rather than pining for a big new project.
Overall an enjoyable and thought provoking book.
February 8, 2017
This book provides the reader with a clear and comprehensive scientific perspective on the Europan planetary processes. In «Unmasking Europa», one will find solid evidence that points towards a communicating global ocean interacting with the icy surface. The author, Richard Greenberg, with his vast expertise, describes how the immense tides created by the primary, Jupiter, cause the icy crust to be much more thinner than expected. This offers a better chance for a chemistry that might support a biosphere in the interface between ocean and crust. Many planetary features rise from the tidal stress caused by Jupiter, like cycloids, chaos, global crack patterns/ridges - some of them mechanisms of surface renewal. Also, the author describes how recent impact craters are accounted for the thin-ice model. Insightful explanation and images are given to help the reader making a better understanding of these planetary processes.
In this book you will find many examples on how big science is done. The constraints. The opportunities. In the end, it all comes to this simple question: will you follow the scientific evidence or will you follow the evidence you have been told about? A must read for the planetary scientist.
In this book you will find many examples on how big science is done. The constraints. The opportunities. In the end, it all comes to this simple question: will you follow the scientific evidence or will you follow the evidence you have been told about? A must read for the planetary scientist.
January 24, 2025
Can not wait for New life, New creatures, New Artefacts on that planet.Maybe we will find proofs about our ancestors...but who knows what we Can find there...there Can be anything...
But very positive message according to NASA is that can be there life.
According to old sumerian texts is written that ancient god of Jupiter is Marduk Curios,known as lord of mages who defeated Ancient Ones in ancient war.
Number of Marduk is 10 and Human fingers are just 10.
So there Can be proof of Human existence or for other extraterrestrial life.
Ancient civilizations have known many things...
(Proofs of flying objects, hieroglyphs from Egyptian pyramids...astronauts pictures on walls Southern American pyramids...)
But positive is that when we find something there on live and we are still able to save it.
Very sad on our planet is that we lost many great species...and problem is like MANLY P. HALL told in his philosophy...humanity have problem to enlight themselves...to understand that life has bigger worth than war...like we can see it on our planet nowadays...eg. inner eternal conflict...problem to accept ourselves & accept life of others...
Can not wait for news of Europa and its new species.
But very positive message according to NASA is that can be there life.
According to old sumerian texts is written that ancient god of Jupiter is Marduk Curios,known as lord of mages who defeated Ancient Ones in ancient war.
Number of Marduk is 10 and Human fingers are just 10.
So there Can be proof of Human existence or for other extraterrestrial life.
Ancient civilizations have known many things...
(Proofs of flying objects, hieroglyphs from Egyptian pyramids...astronauts pictures on walls Southern American pyramids...)
But positive is that when we find something there on live and we are still able to save it.
Very sad on our planet is that we lost many great species...and problem is like MANLY P. HALL told in his philosophy...humanity have problem to enlight themselves...to understand that life has bigger worth than war...like we can see it on our planet nowadays...eg. inner eternal conflict...problem to accept ourselves & accept life of others...
Can not wait for news of Europa and its new species.
September 2, 2022
I read this book are research for my current sci-fi novel A Hardness of Minds. It was very influential even if one does not fully take in the author's side. At the very least he presents compelling evidence that there is far more interaction with the water and the surface than previously admitted.
The other point this novel illuminated for me the was presence and abundance of oxygen. Radiation hitting water and freeing up the oxygen molecules is theorized, but with a thick ice shell it seems less plausible that oxygenated life could be supported. However, with thinner ice (and the currents which do appear to be actively distorting the ice) a more robust biosphere does appear to be far more plausible.
In addition the somewhat petty (or 'conservative approaches' if one wants to be generous) squabbles outlined in the novel also influenced my earth scientists story line.
For a technical book I was never bored. Plus the wealth of images certainly illuminated the story.
The other point this novel illuminated for me the was presence and abundance of oxygen. Radiation hitting water and freeing up the oxygen molecules is theorized, but with a thick ice shell it seems less plausible that oxygenated life could be supported. However, with thinner ice (and the currents which do appear to be actively distorting the ice) a more robust biosphere does appear to be far more plausible.
In addition the somewhat petty (or 'conservative approaches' if one wants to be generous) squabbles outlined in the novel also influenced my earth scientists story line.
For a technical book I was never bored. Plus the wealth of images certainly illuminated the story.
October 14, 2018
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.
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.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews