Why the Search for Life in Europa is Important

(Shown is a radar image of Lake Vostok, which is actually four kilometers below the surface of Antarctica. The lake appears as a flat area in the middle of the image.)

It is known that Europa has an ocean beneath its surface -- that has been established by scientific inference. There is good reason to believe that life exists in that ocean because of the biology rule, "where there is water there is life." This general rule is not as consistent as gravity, but it is a reliable rule.

Ice penetrating radar technology can be employed to hunt for mammal life in Europa's ocean. It is not known whether such mammals exist, but the technology for answering such a question is available. A probe that uses ice penetrating radar technology might detect such mammals if it orbits Europa enough times.

There is a distinction between what is extremely probable and what is "known", but this distinction is only a formality for extremely high probabilities (above 99%). Those observers who are familiar with statistics can truthfully state that the formality between what is extremely probable and what is known can be disregarded for practical purposes, and that it is known -- in the statistical sense -- that life exists in the waters of Europa, though it may be only microbial life.

The Outer Planet Flagship Mission is a step in the right direction toward finding life in Europa's ocean, as long as the right equipment is used. Listed in the model payload of the mission are the following: Laser Altimeter, Radio Science, Ice Penetrating Radar, VIS-IR Imaging Spectrometer (VIRIS), UV Spectrometer, and a Thermal Instrument. Whether the agencies plan to use the equipment to confirm the ocean of Europa or to attempt to detect life is not publicly known.

It would be a waster of time and resources to use this equipment merely for confirming the existence of an ocean in Europa.

Ice penetrating radar can be used to map water sources beneath ice. That has been done in Antarctica, where lakes beneath the ice have been mapped.

It is worth the expense to recognize the possibility that Europa's ocean has mammal life and to attempt to spot such life. Whether Europa has such mammals is unknown. It is commonplace that fish can be detected through ice on Earth by use of a fish finder. Such fish finders use what is essentially ice penetrating radar.

A Europa probe should be equipped with ice penetrating radar for searching for mammal life even though it is not known that such life exists in the Jovian moon. The possibility of finding mammals merits the expense of the equipment.