posted by Mr. Black Sept 19, 2009
Water is the key to life.... and where there is water on Earth, there is life.
Assuming this pattern prevails throughout the solar system then the probability of living organisms inside Jupiter's icy moon Europa is excitingly high. Here's why:
Surely life does not occur absolutely everywhere water is. After all, water exists in the form of ice on our two nearest neighbors, Mars and the Moon. And we're still "not sure" about them. On Jupiter, water exists as a vapor - too hot for any living organism.
So why such a resounding YES for life inside Europa?
Because Europa doesn't just have water: it has a giant subterranean ocean.
Unlike the inner planets, Europa does not have the benefit of the sun as it's primary heat source. Instead there is Jupiter. And rather than radiant energy, Jupiter provides an immense gravitational energy. It is this gravitational relationship with Jupiter and its other moons that is Europa's heating mechanism, a process known as tidal flexing.
And based on a recent study by Robert Tyler, an oceanographer from the University of Washington, this tidal flexing may also be causing violent ocean patterns, causing huge planetary waves inside.
Europa's thick ice shell crust - estimated at anywhere between 1 km to 100 km thick - acts as a protective shell from the harmful radiation of Jupiter's magnetic field. Yet, the surface is regularly penetrated by incoming asteroids that are sucked into this active region of the solar system. Which could very well be facilitating the process of panspermia, a widely accepted theory that micro organisms are constantly being traversed & delivered throughout the universe via asteroids& comets.
With a continuous payload of organic ingredients, an ocean energized by tidal flex, and a radioactive defense shell : Europa could quite possibly be the solar system's most effective incubator of life.
What is the purpose of exploring space ? If it is to explore strange new worlds & to seek out new life - then Europa is arguably the most highest priority destination in the solar system.
One of the biggest challenges with a deep space mission to Europa is a matter of do we have the balls to go inside. Scientists approaching Europa are timid, and for good reason. When you discover life the last thing you want to do is kill it.
The most popularly conceived Europa mission involves an ice-penetrating machine that implants a hydrobot. After landing & setting up an oil rig like platform, a nuclear powered probe is then superheated so it can melt it's way through the thick ice crust. Once it enters the subterranean ocean a smaller probe, the hydrobot, is released to begin navigating this unexplored world.
It's one thing to crash a mechanical device into the desserts of Mars, but a mistake involving an alien ocean ecosystem and a nuclear payload could be disastrous. And it's another reason why a Europa landing mission is the most serious undertaking any space agency will have ever done to date. .
Lynn Rothschild, astrobiologist for NASA says,
The next public Europa mission is scheduled for 2026 when two orbiters are projected to reach Jupiter, a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency.
