Life on Jupiter's Moon Europa Possible? Subsurface Ocean Makes It Potentially Habitable

There may be no need to leave the solar system because a subsurface ocean found on the Jupiter's moon Europa might have possessed microbial life in the distant past.

Reuters reveal the answer to how the Jupiterian moons and the formation of subsurface ocean water on Europa will offer a tantalizing insight into how life came about. It is a fact for life to thrive there since it has a threshold amount of water needed to support most life, even something as basic as microbes in the past.

On the Jovian moon, Europa has an ocean that is covered by ice that is also thick. The large cover ocean is seen as another were extraterrestrial flora and fauna are thriving and evolving with the right conditions too. Other worlds that might contain life in the solar system is Mars and Saturn's moon Enceladus. Scientists are pushing the limits and on Wednesday, a conference that will expound on the possibilities, mentioned in New York Times.

Scientists have not given up on finding a potential home due to the presence of water on moons or planets within our solar system. Becaues of this, it is far easier to find a second outpost in the outer planets. It will be a springboard for deeper interstellar travel.

One of the theories about how Europa's oceans came about is how minerals are the source of water. It could be that radioactivity or the increased heat of the moon's interior far back in its formation. With this primordial heating up, there may not have been water at all.

Also read: Astronomer Believes That Life in Universe Exists Other Than Humans on Earth

There is the effect of tides that is caused by the gravity of the Jovian planet on its smaller moon. Another is the effect of bigger Jovian moons like Io and Ganymede that may have a gravitation effect on it as well.

Most moons are affected by the gravity of their paired planet.

According to Mohit Melwani Daswani, planetary scientist, he surmises that Europa's oceans had the capacity to support life early on. Based on models to predict the Jovian moon's primordial waters, it should be slightly acidic. Probably with amounts of carbon dioxide and some sulfate salts that was the general content of the oceans. Mohit Melwani Daswani works with the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the lead of the study, cited NDTV.

Compared to the search for exo-worlds that are farther than the solar system, there are definitely options within the solar system. Some of the worlds detected seem to have water, but it is too far. But, in the solar system in the outer planets, they are reachable but it will take years not lightyear which is not possible.

There's no way can any planet sustain life without all precious water and that is the first thing being looked at. Another factor is the chemical exchange of the ocean and a world's rocky inner layers, that is the key to having chemicals product to survive.

Daswani added that finding microbes just like Earth bacteria which utilizes carbon dioxide as energy might have survived on substances in the primordial Europa seas.

Compared to the earth's Lunarian pair, Europa is a bit smaller. It could be that Europa's seas are 65 to 160 km deep, containing twice the water of the terrestrial oceans on Earth.

If Europa can support life with its subsurface ocean, it is still getting confirmed. There's no assurance that it will have the same conditions as terrestrial oceans.