Is Europa the Best Place to Find Life?

Many scientists believe that Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of the best places in our solar system to search for life. While planets like Mars once had liquid water, Europa is believed to have a huge ocean of liquid water right now, hidden beneath a thick, icy crust. This makes it a top candidate for finding life.

Here’s why Europa is so promising and the challenges we face in finding life there:

Why Europa Is a Prime Candidate

Scientists say that to find life, you need to find three key ingredients: liquid water, the right chemical elements, and an energy source. Europa may have all three.

• A Massive Ocean: Scientists believe that Europa has a salty, liquid ocean beneath its icy shell that could contain more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. The constant pull of Jupiter’s gravity stretches and flexes Europa’s interior, creating enough heat to keep the ocean from freezing solid.
• The Right Chemistry: The ocean is believed to be in direct contact with a rocky seafloor. This interaction between water and rock could provide the essential chemical elements needed for life, such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur. The moon’s surface is also constantly bombarded by radiation from Jupiter, which could create chemicals that seep down to the ocean below.
• A Source of Energy: Since Europa’s ocean is deep beneath the ice, any life there would not be able to use sunlight for energy like plants on Earth. Instead, life would likely be powered by chemical reactions. On Earth, we see life thriving around deep-sea hydrothermal vents, which release chemical-rich water. Scientists believe similar vents could exist on Europa’s seafloor, providing an energy source for life.

The Challenges of Finding Life on Europa

Despite its potential, finding life on Europa is a huge challenge.

• A Thick Ice Shell: The moon is covered in an ice shell that could be tens of miles thick. This makes it very difficult for a lander to get to the ocean to search for life.
• The Radiation Environment: Europa is located within a powerful radiation belt created by Jupiter’s magnetic field. This radiation is a great threat to any spacecraft we send there, and it would make it impossible for any life to exist on the surface.
• No Sunlight: Life on Europa would have to survive without any sunlight. This means that any life would have to be very different from the life we are used to on Earth and would likely be powered by chemical reactions.

The Future of Exploration: The Europa Clipper Mission

NASA is sending a new mission, the Europa Clipper will explore the icy moon, to study Europa in detail. The spacecraft’s main goal is to figure out if Europa has the ability to support life. The Europa Clipper, which launched in 2024, will not land on Europa. Instead, it will orbit Jupiter and make nearly 50 close flybys of Europa, using its nine scientific instruments to gather as much information as possible about the moon’s ice shell, ocean, and atmosphere.