Potentially Good News For Life On Europa

"Image credit:"Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin"

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BY JASON MCCLELLAN

A new study suggests that salt water from the massive ocean beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa makes its way to the surface through cracks in the ice sheet-a discovery that could be good news for the search for extraterrestrial life.

Water reaching the surface of Europa. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) As "Space.com" explains, "Scientists have detected chemicals on Europa's frozen surface that could only come from the global liquid-water ocean beneath, implying the two are in contact and potentially opening a window into an environment that may be capable of supporting life as we know it."

According to "Popular Science", researchers hypothesize that when salty water from Europa's sub-surface ocean makes its way to the surface, it is exposed to sulfur from Jupiter's largest moon Io. The sulfer interacts with magnesium chloride in the water and produces magnesium sulfate, according to the study's lead author Mike Brown of Caltech in Pasadena.

This discovery shows that chemical activity and energy transfer occur on the surface of Europa, which is important for the search for life there because, as "Popular Science" explains, "any alien creatures living on the frigid moon would need an energy source-the sun is far too dim at that distance to really do anything." And with ocean water making its way to Europa's surface, scientists may be able to collect samples without drilling through the ice sheet.

The team's study will be published in "Astronomical Journal".

Extraterrestrial Memes Could Humans One Day Live On Europa Nasa Experts Believe Jupiter Moon Could Be Habitable

AUGUST 17, 2013 - SPACE - NASA believes Europa, Jupiter's ice-covered moon, could one day be habitable for man.One of the goals of a potential Europa mission is to investigate the planet's non-ice material from at least two different depths to understand its detailed composition of salts, organic materials and other contaminants.And it has commissioned a team of scientists to consider the exact objectives for a landed spacecraft mission on its icy surface. Writing in the peer-reviewed Astrobiology journal, the team has outlined three main goals for a future mission. The first is to investigate Europa's non-ice material from at least two different depths to understand its detailed composition of salts, organic materials and other contaminants. A secondary focus is geophysical mapping of Europa to probe the satellite's ice shell and ocean, through seismology and magnetometry- a technique of measuring patterns of magnetism in the soil. Finally, the scientists hope a spacecraft on Europa will allow them to characterise the surface geology at a human scale. 'Landing on Europa and touching its surface is a visionary goal of planetary science,' said Robert Pappalardo, PhD of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 'This is a difficult technical challenge that is probably many years away. 'Understanding the key scientific questions to be addressed by a future Europa lander helps us to focus on the technologies required to get us there.' In March, scientists detailed the strongest evidence yet that salty water from the huge liquid ocean beneath Europa's frozen surface actually makes its way to the moon's surface - reinforcing suggestions that there could be life on Europa. Europa is a geological wonderland, with a wide variety of surface features. While much was learned from Galileo observations shown, it is still not understood how most of these features form, or their implications for Europa's evolution.The research suggested there was a chemical exchange between the ocean and surface, making the ocean a richer chemical environment. The report was compiled by Professor Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and Kevin Hand from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasaden. The exchange between the ocean and the surface, Professor Brown said, 'means that energy might be going into the ocean, which is important in terms of the possibilities for life there.' The scientists also believe the composition of Europa's ocean may closely resemble the salty ocean of Earth. A mission could map the geology of Europa to probe its ice shell and ocean. Blue contours show radiation intensity on Europa's surface, as labeled with the geographic extent to which electrons of a given energy affect the surface and how deeply they penetrate.'Landing on the surface of Europa is a key step in the astrobiological investigation of that world,' said Christopher McKay, PhD, Senior Editor of Astrobiology and a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. 'The paper by Pappalardo et al. outlines the science that could be done by such a lander. The hope would be that surface materials, possibly near the linear crack features, include biomarkers carried up from the ocean.' Europa has very few craters on its surface.Europa was first examined by the Voyager mission in 1979 and by Galileo in the 1990s. As well as Europa, scientists believe that Encelade, a moon belonging to Saturn, could also be habitable. EUROPA - THE 'MOST LIKELY PLACE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM TO SUPPORT LIFE'Europa is the sixth closest moon to Jupiter and the smallest of the four Galilean satellites that belong to the planet. It was discovered by Galileo Galilei in January 1610 and is named after a Phoenician noblewoman in Greek mythology who was courted by Zeus and became the Queen of Crete.Europa orbits Jupiter in around three-and-a-half days with an orbital radius of 670,900km. It is slightly smaller than the Earth's moon, but at 3,100km in diameter it is the sixth largest moon and 15th largest object in the entire solar system.It is likely to have an outer layer of water, some 100km thick. The outer layer of the water is believed to be frozen with a liquid ocean underneath.It is one of the smoothest objects in the solar system with few craters on its surface, which is tectonically active and relatively young. - DAILY GALAXY.

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