If Life Exists on Europa, Scientists Might Soon Be Able to Detect It
NASA
Europa is one of the largest of more than 90 moons in orbit around the planet Jupiter. It is also one of the best places to look for alien life.
Often termed an "ocean world" by scientists, observations to date strongly suggest that beneath Europa's icy crust, there could be a liquid saltwater ocean containing twice as much water as Earth's oceans. Now, Nasa's Europa Clipper—the largest spacecraft ever developed by the US space agency for a planetary mission—may have the tools to detect it.
As the Clipper spacecraft undergoes final testing and preparations before its October 2024 launch, scientists using one of the nine instruments onboard have made an exciting discovery. As well as determining whether Europa could support life, the instrument in question should, in fact, be capable of directly detecting alien life itself—should it exist there.
The three key ingredients for life are energy, liquid water, and the right chemicals. The spacecraft will provide more detail on these ingredients at Europa and, therefore, its potential for hosting life.
Europa gets energy from the extreme tidal forces caused by Jupiter's gravity, which pushes and pull the material of the moon, generating heat within it. It is this process that supports the theory of a liquid water ocean beneath the surface.
Europa's extraterrestrial ocean might contain the chemical building blocks for life. These include chemical elements such as carbon, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. But the mission team will also be on the lookout for organic compounds, which contain carbon and comprise many of the more complex chemicals vital in biology.
Detecting the signatures of these chemicals is the key goal of the Europa Clipper mission. If such evidence can be found, this would indicate that Europa may be another place in the solar system capable of supporting life.