Looking at this picture, what do you see? It resembles human muscle with the skin peeled off, or a close up shot from one of those Bodies exhibits. For a second you might even think it could be one of those balls made entirely of rubber bands, or a golf ball with the hard, dimpled rind removed from the outside. As you probably already knew, it isn’t of those things. This is an image of Jupiter’s moon of Europa, and those creepy looking red strands, the pieces that really do look like muscle, are rivers of blood red ice.

This image of Europa comes courtesy of NASA’s Galileo spacecraft which is exploring that particular region of space. The picture is a combination of “clear-filter grayscale data” from a single orbit (on November 6, 1997) of Jupiter’s satellite and lower resolution color data from another pass (taken in 1998). Those red threads that sprawl out throughout the picture are ice made up of water mixed with hydrated salts, which the scientists and NASA think could possibly be sulfuric acid or magnesium sulfate. They also believe that surface characteristics such as these—the ridges and chaotic surface—could indicate contact with a “global subsurface ocean layer during or after their formation.”

One of my favorite films, Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me is partly a cautionary tale about what happens when curiosity gets the better of someone, and is direct in its depiction of a seemingly innocent journey nearly ruined time and time again. Science fiction is full of these kinds of stories, where would-be pioneers meet their instant doom due to unforeseen circumstances, but science just keeps on trying to make all that shit happen. NASA‘s Next Big Plan is an unmanned mission to Europa, Jupiter’s most interesting moon in terms of Earthly similarities. It’ll be a while before the car is packed and gassed up though, so don’t go writing any alien conspiracy theories just yet.

For their fiscal year 2015 Budget Proposal, NASA plans to spend $17.5 billion in various ways, including putting more money into the Sunjammer Solar Sail energy source, climate change studies, and hopefully major developments in getting humans into deep space travels and hibernation. But they’re also setting aside $15 million for “pre-formulation work for a potential mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa.” Elizabeth Robinson, NASA’s chief financial officer, said the potential mission would launch in the mid-2020s, which means this thing could either become a highly-promoted and well-embraced challenge, or it could get swept under the space rug when the next U.S. President enters the oval office.

Scientists consider Jupiter’s moon Europa one of the best candidates for harboring alien life in the solar system. Its atmosphere is mostly made up of oxygen and it has a smooth surface of ice (not to mention a rocky mantle and likely an iron core — sound familiar?). Based on data gathered by the Galileo spacecraft, which arrived at the Jovian moon in 1995, scientists theorize that under Europa’s icy surface exists an ocean of water, kept liquid by heat generated from tidal forces. Recent evidence published in the Science Express journal lends support to this theory, as data from the Hubble indicates plumes of water vapor at Europa’s south pole, suggesting that there is indeed liquid water under the surface.

You guys know we can’t go more than a few days without bringing you a trailer from some indie sci-fi that you’ll probably never hear about again. But we’ve got our fingers crossed for Paradox Alice, whose trailer, seen above, manages to combine a surreal-but-interesting story with some of the most hilarious-looking images of a flying spaceship I’ve seen in a while. But that’s almost a good thing, because I don’t need to worry about these filmmakers trying to prove to me that this film is better than it is. Does that make sense?

Science fiction is a genre where art imitates and expounds upon life on a regular basis, and we’re now at a time when life constantly attempts to create the things initially imagined by filmmakers and novelists. The mission behind the the crowdsourced think tank Objective Europa is simple: to answer whether or not a manned mission to Jupiter’s moon of Europa is possible. That question was already dealt with earlier this year by Sebastián Cordero’s Europa Report, and according to that, we probably don’t want or need to find out what Europa is made of. But that was just a movie.

Objective Europa is the group effort of scientists, architects, designers, and former NASA specialists who want to amass as large a research base as possible before making any attempts to move on with any actual manned missions. Think of it like a Kickstarter for ideas rather than dollar bills.

Heavy on atmosphere, but light in the way of plot details, check out this trailer for Bruce Hutchinson’s short science fiction film Europa. While there isn’t much concrete detail, there is some definite potential contained within.