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The Vampire Squid from Hell

vampsquid

Vampyroteuthis infernalis (literally 'The Vampire Squid from Hell') is a species of cephalopod that inhabits temperate and tropical deep sea oceans throughout the world. It has a pair of sensory filaments that makes it unique among ocean creatures and earns it the distinction of being the sole creature in its very own Order: Vampyromorphida.

The body of Vampyroteuthis is covered with photophores which can be flashed on and off rapidly in a dazzling light display intended to confuse predators. It also has the ability to eject a cloud of sticky luminous mucus filled with glowing orbs of blue light.

Just in case you thought my Europan creatures were fanciful!

Read more (lots more!) about Vampyroteuthis here. 

Juno

junolaunch

The NASA Juno spacecraft has been succesfully launched and is now on its way to the giant gas planet Jupiter. 

This mission is likely to be as close as we get to a real life version of '2001: A Space Odyssey' in our lifetimes. I find it hard to believe that anyone could visit the Juno mission website and not be completely overwhelmed by this wondrous human endeavour.

Sadly, this mission has no priority to observe Europa, although I guess that the Juno craft will be in proximity at times, and we may reasonably expect some new science to come from that.

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