Extraterrestrial

ET evidence may lie just under Europa's surface

By T.K. Randall
July 24, 2018 ·  1 comment

Signs of life may lie just beneath the surface. Image Credit: NASA/JPL When it comes to seeking out signs of extraterrestrial life within our own solar system, no target has proven more tantalizing than Europa - a world thought to be home to a potentially habitable ocean of liquid water hidden deep beneath a thick icy exterior shell.

Finding a way to reach this subterranean ocean however has long proven something of a challenge, but now scientists have revealed that amino acids - an important signature of life - could endure for over ten million years mere centimeters beneath the surface.

If this turns out to be the case, it would make the job of finding such evidence a lot easier.According to NASA scientist Tom Nordheim, the most important thing would be landing a spacecraft in the correct place - namely towards the top of Europa where such traces would be easiest to find.

The space agency is currently planning two missions to Jupiter's icy moon - an orbiter in 2022 and a lander that would follow several years later.

So great is the possibility of finding evidence of alien life on Europa in fact that some scientists anticipate that such a discovery will be made there within the space of just 20 years.

If this turns out to be true, then the next two decades may be exciting times indeed.

Source: Independent | Comments (1)

Tags: Europa