NASA scientists say icy moon Europa may be best spot to check for alien life
Jupiter’s moon Europa is covered with smooth ice that hides a salty sea. At certain points, the hidden ocean breaks out through cracks in the ice that would make Old Faithful look like a sprinkler system in the back yard.
NASA / Goddard
Swimming could prove to be the most common way to move around in our solar system.
NASA researchers say new models show that the inner ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europe should support life. It has long been suspected that the European watersthat lie beneath its icy shell and are warmed by tidal movements or an element of the moon’s geology below the surface could be habitable.
The underrated indie film Europa Report 2013 even examines the concept.
In this latest study, scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory used data from the Galileo mission to model the composition and other physical properties of Europe’s hidden layers, including the subterranean ocean. They found that the world’s waters may not be as acidic as previously thought.
“Our simulations, combined with data from the Hubble Space Telescope showing chloride on the surface of Europe, suggest that the water has most likely become chloride rich,” lead researcher Mohit Melwani Daswani said in a press release. “In other words, its composition was more like the oceans on Earth. We believe that this ocean could be habitable for life.”
The research that was presented on Wednesday at the virtual Goldschmidt geochemistry conference still has to be subjected to a peer review.
Europe may not be the only wet and wild world in our neighborhood. At least two other major moons of Jupiter – Callisto and Ganymede – have ocean layers. Saturn’s moon Enceladus also houses a hidden sea and Complex organic compounds that are part of the building blocks of life have been detected in its waters.
“An interesting chemistry is certainly taking place in these bodies,” said Steve Mojzsis, geology professor at the University of Colorado, who was not involved in the work. “A key aspect that makes a world” habitable “is the ability to maintain these chemical imbalances Icy moons are probably lacking this ability, so it will need to be tested on every future mission to Europe. ”
Fortunately, such a mission is coming soon.
“Europe is one of our best chances to find life in our solar system,” Daswani says. “”NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will start in the next few years, and so our work aims to prepare for the mission that will examine the habitability of Europe. ”
