NewsHour
Backgrounders
June 10, 1997:
A Gergen dialogue
with William Broad about his book "The Universe Below."
April 10, 1997:
NASA scientists explain the
findings from Europa.
Browse the NewsHour's science
coverage.
Outside
Links
Browse stories from the New York Times by William J. Broad and others on Europa. (note:
free, but registration is required.)
Browse Simon & Schusters' page on "The
Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea."
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  As
NASA's Galileo spacecraft sent back images from Europa, one of Jupiter's
moons, earlier this year, scientists saw evidence of a starting discovery
– the possibility of an ocean underneath Europa's icy crust.
It could be an extraterrestrial "Garden of Eden." Scientists believe
primitive, microbial life might exist in Europa's ocean living off geothermal
energy up to a kilometer below the surface.  Researchers
base their speculations on recent discoveries from another remote environment
-- the bottom of Earth's oceans. Scientists diving to those cold, dark
depths have found organisms taking live-giving energy not from the sun
but from super-hot volcanic vents.
William Broad, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer for the New York Times, dove into the Earth's oceanic depths and wrote about the
animals of that remote region in his new book, "The Universe Below:
Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea."  After
reading his
dialogue with David Gergen, submit your questions about deep-sea life
– either Earth-bound or extraterrestrial – in our Authors' Corner.
Questions answered in this forum:
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