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Our paper, "Little to no active faulting likely at Europa’s seafloor today", was just published today in Nature Communications! This version of the paper was submitted early last year and accepted in November, but the genesis of this paper started a VERY long time ago (relatively speaking) (2/n)

The original science question my co-author Christian and I asked was simply: What does the seafloor of Europa actually *look* like? This question came about because, although we can see Europa's icy exterior pretty well, we know virtually nothing of its interior. (3/n)

So we ran calculations widely used for rocks on Earth to figure out how strong the ocean floor might be, remembering that most of Europa is rock! Why? Because fractures are a GREAT way of exposing fresh rock to the ocean, driving chemical reactions for life. No fractures? No fresh rock. (4/n)

DO you think it'll be possible with near future technology to do any seismic analysis from the icy surface and look at the internal structure?

Yes. But it will be difficult... and expensive.

I would think that the tidal forces from being in such close proximity to Jupiter would have much more effect on Europa and that would cause the heating of it's interior, as well as the deformation of the moon in general.

I'd be a bit careful about saying "it took a big hit". We don't know how life started on Earth, let alone if similar conditions are required elsewhere. You very well could be correct, however, I'd personally would add many more qualifiers to statements like that.

I didn't ask for your opinion. And I stand by what I wrote.

I hit the like button to acknowledge the subject, not because I like it. 😭