Europa, Jupiter's fourth-largest moon, has been scrutinized by the scientific community for decades. Still, NASA's Europa Clipper mission recently targeted this moon to explore its potential to harbor life.
The celestial body is considered captivating and unique among Jupiter's moons due to the vast saltwater ocean beneath its icy surface.
Scientific observations suggest that Europa's ocean contains more than twice as much water as Earth's oceans.
Aim to study Europa's surface
The Europa Clipper mission, scheduled to launch in October, aims to study Europa's surface and subsurface to determine if conditions are suitable for life.
Additionally, the European Space Agency's Juice mission is also targeting Jupiter's icy moons to explore their habitability further, reported MIT Technology Review.
According to MIT, the quest to understand Europa's potential for life dates back to its discovery by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Over the centuries, advancements in astronomy and space exploration have provided valuable insights into Europa's composition and geology.
Missions such as Voyager, Galileo, and Juno have revealed tantalizing clues about Europa's surface features, including potential plumes of water erupting from beneath its icy shell.
However, exploring Europa also poses significant challenges, for instance, the moon's intense radiation from Jupiter. And its distance from the sun means limited solar energy is available.
Therefore, scientists devised innovative solutions to overcome these obstacles, such as equipping spacecraft like Europa Clipper with massive solar panels and designing missions to minimize exposure to radiation.
"We think there's an ocean there, everywhere," stated Bob Pappalardo, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Essentially everywhere on Earth that there's water, there's life. Could there be life on Europa?"
Potentially discovering life on Europa is immense
Despite the challenges, the potential payoff of discovering life on Europa is immense. Finding even microbial life forms would revolutionize our understanding of the universe and our place within it.
It would suggest that life may be common throughout the cosmos, opening up new avenues for exploration and discovery.
"Unless we get really lucky, we're not going to be able to tell if there is life there, but we can find out if all the conditions are right for life," expressed planetary geologist Louise Prockter at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, a co-investigator on the Clipper camera team.
As scientists prepare to launch missions like Europa Clipper and Juice, anticipation and excitement continue to grow within the scientific community.
These missions represent humanity's ongoing quest to explore and understand the mysteries of our solar system and beyond, with Europa standing as one of the most promising targets in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Bob Pappalardo, planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated: "Essentially everywhere on Earth that there's water, there's life. Could there be life on Europa?"
Nicholas Makris, overseeing MIT's Center for Ocean Engineering, employs acoustics and pioneering techniques for investigating vast bodies of water. He used sound waves to probe beneath its icy surface.
He retains a hopeful outlook, aspiring to witness the realization of a lander mission to Europa in the future.
"You have to find out. Everyone wants to know. There isn't anyone who doesn't want to know," he said.
Now, scientists are undertaking this ambitious endeavor, led by NASA's Europa Clipper mission, to explore Jupiter's moon Europa for signs of extraterrestrial life.
