Is there life beyond Earth? For context, our closest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.25 light years away, or an astonishing 40,208,000,000,000 km (25,000,000,000,000 miles) from Earth. Discovering a smart civilization may be out of reach for now but searching for any kinds of life beyond Earth is extremely much possible within the confines of our own solar system.
One such notable area to search for life is on Jupiters second Galilean moon, Europa. This crater-less ice ball with huge fractures and ridges that run along its surface is long believed to have a salted liquid water ocean below its external icy shell. Because we dont know the depth of the liquid ocean, the concern then ends up being how cold can salty liquid water exist? While the freezing point of fresh water is 0 ° C( 32 ° F), the freezing point for seawater is actually -2 ° C( 28.4 ° F ). This lower freezing point is because of charged particles referred to as salt chloride ions that disrupt the balance of molecules in the water, causing the variety of water particles that hook onto ice particles to decrease. Figuring out how low the freezing point in salted water can go will assist scientists determine how deep we can explore on Europa to search for life.
The left panels blue and gray layers reveal the deep, ice-covered ocean on Europa, a moon of Jupiter that could host extraterrestrial life. This ocean is believed to be much deeper than oceans in the world. New research tips at where liquid water may be discovered in these environments. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, with adjustments by Baptiste Journaux).
A current research study released in Cell Reports Physical Sciences goes over how scientists from the University of Washington (UW) and the University of California, Berkeley performed experiments that measured the physical limits for the existence of liquid water in icy extraterrestrial worlds. The research study focused on eutectics, or the most affordable temperature level that a salted solution can stay liquid before entirely freezing. This blend of geoscience and engineering was done to assist in the search for extraterrestrial life and the upcoming robotic expedition of oceans on moons of other worlds.
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One such noteworthy location to browse for life is on Jupiters second Galilean moon, Europa. The left panels blue and gray layers reveal the deep, ice-covered ocean on Europa, a moon of Jupiter that might host extraterrestrial life. Europa is about 3,160 kilometers (1,950 miles) in size, or about the size of Earths moon.
” The more a liquid is stable, the more promising it is for habitability,” said co-corresponding author Baptiste Journaux, an acting assistant professor of Earth and area sciences at the UW. “Our outcomes reveal that the cold, salted, high-pressure liquids discovered in the deep ocean of other planets moons can remain liquid to much cooler temperature than they would at lower pressures. This extends the variety of possible habitats on icy moons and will enable us to determine where we must look for biosignatures, or indications of life.”.
The experiments utilized UC Berkeley devices originally developed for the future cryopreservation of organs for medical applications and for food storage. For this research study, nevertheless, the authors used it to mimic the conditions believed to exist on other worlds moons.
Journaux, a planetary researcher and expert on the physics of water and minerals, worked with UC Berkeley engineers to test services of 5 different salts at pressures up to 3,000 times air pressure, or 300 megapascals– about 3 times the pressure in Earths deepest ocean trench.
” The new data obtained from this research study may help even more scientists understanding of the complex geological procedures observed in these icy ocean worlds,” Journaux said.
This research study is essential considering that there are numerous objectives slated to go to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn in the coming years: NASAs Dragonfly and Europa Clipper, and the European Space Agencys JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE).
Dragonfly.
Part of NASAs New Frontiers Program, Dragonfly is a rotorcraft currently scheduled to be launched in June 2027 and get to Titan in 2034. The rotorcraft itself is approximately the size of the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers on Mars, or about the size of a little automobile. Dragonfly will be the first powered aircraft to check out a planetary body in the external planetary system, as Ingenuity became the very first powered airplane on another world when it initially flew on Mars in 2021. Dragonflys science mission is set up to last 2 years, during which time the rotorcraft will perform “hops” around Titans surface area, with one hop per full Titan day (16 Earth days).
Artists concept of the Dragonfly Mission. (Credit: NASA).
Europa Clipper.
Moneyed under NASAs Planetary Missions Program Offices Solar System Exploration program, Europa Clipper is an orbiter presently arranged to be introduced in October 2024 and arrive at Europa in 2030. The spacecraft will be put in an extremely elliptical orbit around Jupiter to carry out detailed reconnaissance of Europa and examine whether the icy world might be habitable. The factor for the extremely elliptical orbit is due to the fact that of Jupiters very strong radiation that might actually fry a spacecraft if exposed for too long.
Artists concept of Europa Clipper over Jupiters moon Europa. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech).
JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE).
JUICE will be the very first large-class mission in the European Space Agencys Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 program presently set up to be launched in April 2023 and get to Jupiter in 2031. The science mission calls for three years of making in-depth observations of Jupiter and its 3 biggest moons– Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
Artists concept of JUICE spacecraft at Jupiter. (Credit: ESA).
Does Europa harbor the conditions essential for life to exist? If so, where in its large ocean will we discover it, or maybe in the ice itself? Just time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & & keep looking up!
Sources: University of Washington Press Release, NASA (1 ), NASA (2 ), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Britannica, Cell Reports Physical Sciences, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, NASA JPL, European Space Agency, NASA (3 ).
Featured Image: This image, taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1996, reveals 2 views of Jupiters ice-covered satellite, Europa. The left image shows the approximate natural color while the right is colored to highlight features. Europa has to do with 3,160 kilometers (1,950 miles) in diameter, or about the size of Earths moon. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech).
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Is there life beyond Earth? Finding an intelligent civilization might be out of reach for now but searching for any forms of life beyond Earth is very much possible within the boundaries of our own solar system.