EUROPA Ocean Workshop; November 12-14, 1996, San Juan Capistrano, California

这次由美国国家航空航天局和美国国家科学基金会赞助的会议将探讨与木卫二可能存在的海洋、海底火山活动和生物活动有关的想法。木卫二是木星的四大伽利略卫星之一。数据和理论表明（尽管没有得到证实）木卫二的冰层下有一个液态水的海洋。木卫二经历了潮汐加热，类似于木星卫星木卫一上壮观的火山活动，这种加热可能足以融化冰并维持海洋。会议将讨论有关海洋的地质和地球物理证据，以及海洋可能的物理状态。如果木卫二上存在海洋，那么它是否能支持生命的问题马上就会出现。旅行者号宇宙飞船对木卫二的第一次详细考察（1979年）与海洋学家对地球海底火山热液地点的第一次详细考察非常接近。这项研究表明，在液态水存在的情况下，火山可以在没有太阳能量的情况下维持生命。木卫二上也可能存在海底火山活动。因此，这次会议的一个主要目的将是批判性地审查支持和反对木卫二海底火山活动的论点，以及这种活动也可能支持生物活动的可能性。一个相关而有争议的话题是生命是否起源于海底火山系统，在地球和其他行星上。会议将汇集行星科学、海洋学和外太空生物学团体来探讨这些主题。这次会议由美国宇航局太阳系探索部（外太空生物学项目办公室）和美国国家科学基金会海洋科学项目共同支持，还将讨论正在进行的和未来的木卫二机器人探索。伽利略号宇宙飞船目前正在环绕木星的轨道上运行，在执行任务期间，它将对木卫二进行多次飞越检查。后续的任务可能会飞往木卫二，详细地研究海洋的存在，并在发现海洋存在的情况下探索海洋。会议将讨论可用于此类任务的测量技术，以及它们对进一步探索太阳系的影响。

OCE-9612530 This NASA and NSF sponsored conference will explore ideas related to Europa's possible ocean, submarine volcanism, and biological activity. Europa is one of the four large Galilean satellites of Jupiter. Data and theory have suggested (though not proven) that Europa has an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. Europa undergoes tidal heating similar to that driving the spectacular volcanism on the Jovian moon Io, and this heating may have been sufficient to melt the ice and maintain an ocean. Among the topics the conference will address are geologic and geophysical evidence concerning an ocean, and what its physical state might be. If an ocean exists on Europa, the question of whether it could support life immediately arises. The first detailed examination of Europa by the Voyager spacecraft (in 1979) coincided very closely with the first detailed investigation by oceanographers of volcano- hydrothermal sites on the Earth's seafloor. That work has shown that in the presence of liquid water, volcanoes can sustain life without energy from the sun. Submarine volcanism is also a possibility on Europa. A major purpose of the conference, then, will be to examine critically the arguments for and against submarine volcanism on Europa, and the likelihood that such activity could support biological activity there as well. A related and controversial topic is the issue of whether life can have originated at submarine volcanic systems, on Earth and on planets in general. The conference will bring together the planetary science, oceanography, and exobiology communities to explore these topics. The conference, jointly supported by NASA's Solar System Exploration Division (Exobiology Program Office) and NSF's Ocean Science Program, will also deal with ongoing and future robotic exploration of Europa. The Galileo spacecraft is now in orbit around Jupiter, and will make multiple flyby examinations of Europa during its mission. Follow-on missio ns could be flown to Europa that would address the existence of an ocean in detail, and that would explore the ocean the ocean if it were found to be present. The conference will address the measurement techniques that could be used on such missions, and their implications for further solar system exploration.