Scientists looking for life say Europa looks like a part of Earth
Researchers examining an icy moon orbiting Jupiter noticed that it bears a striking resemblance to a place here on Earth, making it "a prime candidate for extraterrestrial habitability.
By
Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Apr 21, 2022 9:47 AM EST
|
Updated Apr 21, 2022 9:54 AM EST
A newly discovered kind of stellar explosion called micronova could be commonplace in the universe and may change our understanding of how eruptions in stars occur, astronomers suggest.
Scientists studying Europa, one of Jupiter's most famous icy moons, have found that some of the moon's frozen features are quite similar to those on Greenland, which suggests that the moon could hold life.
A study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications studied double ridges— a geological feature common to Europa comprised of two parallel ridges and a central trough down the middle — a feature that can also be found in northwestern Greenland.
Scientists observed Europa's double ridges by studying satellite images captured by the European Space Agency's WorldView-1, WorldView-2 and WorldView-3 satellites.
Stanford University geophysicist Riley Culberg, the lead author of the study, and his team studied the formation of Greenland's double ridge and found that it was formed by a process that would leave shallow liquid water embedded within the ice, meaning that the moon could certainly hold life.
The surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa looms large in this reprocessed colored view developed in 2014, made from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute)
"The presence of liquid water in the ice shell would suggest that exchange between the ocean and ice shell is common, which could be important for chemical cycling that would help support life," Culberg told Reuters. "Shallow water in particular also means there might be easier targets for future space missions to image or sample that could at least preserve evidence of life without having to fully access the deep ocean."
Europa is a young, geologically active moon with a large subsurface ocean beneath its icy shell. The moon has a diameter of 1,940 miles, making it a bit smaller than Earth's moon but the fourth largest of Jupiter's known moons.
An artist's concept shows a simulated view from the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. The planet Jupiter looms over the horizon. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The moon is one of the likeliest candidates to hold life because of the discovery of the large, saltwater ocean that has been detected beneath the ice.
"Jupiter’s moon Europa is a prime candidate for extraterrestrial habitability in our solar system," the study reads, with Culberg's discovery of potential water pockets closer to the surface providing yet another potentially hospitable habitat for alien life.
The alien life that would be found on Europa is much more likely to be microbial than anything that could be seen with the human eye. Still, such a discovery would be extremely important.
"Between having two potential habitats and the fact that double ridges - and the near-surface water bodies they may imply - are among the most common features on Europa's surface, it makes this moon a very exciting candidate for habitability indeed," Stanford geophysics professor and study co-author Dustin Schroeder told Reuters.
In 2024, NASA's robotic Europa Clipper spacecraft will launch with the mission of investigating whether Europa could be a suitable habitat for life. The orbiter will loop around Jupiter, allowing it to perform multiple close flybys of the beautifully icy moon. If the moon appears habitable, future missions to the far-off spot in our solar system seem likely.
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News / Astronomy
Scientists looking for life say Europa looks like a part of Earth
Researchers examining an icy moon orbiting Jupiter noticed that it bears a striking resemblance to a place here on Earth, making it "a prime candidate for extraterrestrial habitability.
By Zachary Rosenthal, AccuWeather staff writer
Published Apr 21, 2022 9:47 AM EST | Updated Apr 21, 2022 9:54 AM EST
A newly discovered kind of stellar explosion called micronova could be commonplace in the universe and may change our understanding of how eruptions in stars occur, astronomers suggest.
Scientists studying Europa, one of Jupiter's most famous icy moons, have found that some of the moon's frozen features are quite similar to those on Greenland, which suggests that the moon could hold life.
A study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications studied double ridges— a geological feature common to Europa comprised of two parallel ridges and a central trough down the middle — a feature that can also be found in northwestern Greenland.
Scientists observed Europa's double ridges by studying satellite images captured by the European Space Agency's WorldView-1, WorldView-2 and WorldView-3 satellites.
Stanford University geophysicist Riley Culberg, the lead author of the study, and his team studied the formation of Greenland's double ridge and found that it was formed by a process that would leave shallow liquid water embedded within the ice, meaning that the moon could certainly hold life.
The surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa looms large in this reprocessed colored view developed in 2014, made from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute)
"The presence of liquid water in the ice shell would suggest that exchange between the ocean and ice shell is common, which could be important for chemical cycling that would help support life," Culberg told Reuters. "Shallow water in particular also means there might be easier targets for future space missions to image or sample that could at least preserve evidence of life without having to fully access the deep ocean."
Europa is a young, geologically active moon with a large subsurface ocean beneath its icy shell. The moon has a diameter of 1,940 miles, making it a bit smaller than Earth's moon but the fourth largest of Jupiter's known moons.
An artist's concept shows a simulated view from the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. The planet Jupiter looms over the horizon. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The moon is one of the likeliest candidates to hold life because of the discovery of the large, saltwater ocean that has been detected beneath the ice.
"Jupiter’s moon Europa is a prime candidate for extraterrestrial habitability in our solar system," the study reads, with Culberg's discovery of potential water pockets closer to the surface providing yet another potentially hospitable habitat for alien life.
The alien life that would be found on Europa is much more likely to be microbial than anything that could be seen with the human eye. Still, such a discovery would be extremely important.
"Between having two potential habitats and the fact that double ridges - and the near-surface water bodies they may imply - are among the most common features on Europa's surface, it makes this moon a very exciting candidate for habitability indeed," Stanford geophysics professor and study co-author Dustin Schroeder told Reuters.
In 2024, NASA's robotic Europa Clipper spacecraft will launch with the mission of investigating whether Europa could be a suitable habitat for life. The orbiter will loop around Jupiter, allowing it to perform multiple close flybys of the beautifully icy moon. If the moon appears habitable, future missions to the far-off spot in our solar system seem likely.
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