Is There Life on Jupiter's Moon Europa?

The Red planet has long been thought to be a possible source of life. Although we now know that the canals on Mars were just a defect of the telescopes of the Nineteenth century, we also know that the astronomers of the time were not wrong for thinking that there may have been water there. There is, in fact. It's what the polar ice caps on the planet are made out of. Liquid water may exist below the surface. While Mars has been a tantalizing targets for astrobiolgists theorizing that life may exist, it is not the only potential place in the solar system. Two moons outside of the 4 Inner planets also contain conditions that may support life. They are Saturn's Moon Titan, and Jupiter's Moon, Europa.

Europa is known to be one of the brightest objects in the solar system. The reason for this is that sunlight reflects off of its icy surface. Until recently it was not known whether Europa or contained liquid water or if it was merely ice. The Galileo spacecraft mission has revealed some compelling evidence that underneath the surface of Europa lies a liquid ocean.

While the existence of liquid water on Mars has not yet been verified even though it has been studied for years by various NASA space probes, the Galileo craft has confirmed the existence of liquid water on Europa underneath a layer of ice. Surprisingly, another moon of Jupiter, Callisto may share this trait. While Saturn's moon Titan does have weather patterns and other building blocks what it does not have is water in liquid form at its surface. One of the most compelling pieces of evidences for it were channels the Galileo spacecraft found on the icebergs of the moon.

Scientists for the Galileo spacecraft mission say this cannot be accounted for slope or actions of the wind on Titan. The grooves in the crater they say can only be accounted for by the presence of liquid water running across the surface of the iceberg. Even if Europa has water, the next question is are the other two ingredients necessary for supporting life present? Sufficient heat to maintain life and other organic elements. The word yes answers both those questions.

While the ingredients for life are found on all three possible other suspects we have yet to find out whether or not those planets contain any microbes or any larger creatures. Eventually scientists will find out but it may be a while yet. The Italian scientist who lent his name to the probe would likely be proud to know that the moon of Jupiter he discovered contains creatures other than those found on Earth.

Sources:

http://www.resa.net/nasa/europa_life.htm

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/europa.htm