Unmasking Jupiter's Europa: The Search for an Alien Biosphere (VIDEO)

"There's nothing saying there is life there now.  But we do know there are the physical conditions to support it."

Richard Greenberg, University of Arizona. world's leading expert on Europa.

Based on what we know about the Jovian moon, parts of Europa's seafloor should greatly resemble the environments around Earth's deep-ocean hydrothermal vents. Experts in marine biology attending the recent annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Science said they would shocked if no life existed in Europa's oceans.

Richard Greenberg, Principal Investigator in NASA’s Planetary Geology and Geophysics program, has calculated that the ocean may receive about 100 times more oxygen than previous models indicated — enough to support respiration by three million tons of fish.

Oxygen, generated by charged particles striking water molecules on the moon’s surface, would take 1 to 2 billion years to begin seeping into the ocean, calculated Richard Greenberg of the University of Arizona in Tucson. That delay would have been critical for supporting life because it would have allowed time for primitive organisms to develop the ability to use oxygen. 

The most fascinating part of Europa's evolution, says Greenberg, is Europa’s youthful, nearly crater-free appearance, which indicates that the crust is continually resurfaced. Today’s crust is only 50 million years old, even though the moon formed soon after the solar system’s birth 4.56 billion years ago.

Over a period of about 50 million years, a layer of ice 300 meters thick slowly rose from below, gradually covering the moon’s surface and erasing old craters. As a result of this facelift, Europa’s oxygenated layer grew increasingly thick, until after about 1 to 2 billion years the entire ice layer was oxygen-rich. At that point, Greenberg suggests, ice melting at the bottom of the frozen layer began delivering oxygen into the proposed buried ocean at a faster rate than previously estimated, resulting in about 100 times more oxygen in the ocean.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48322/title/Europas_proposed_ocean_could_be_rich_in_oxygen

http://www.oceanleadership.org/2009/could-jupiter-moon-harbor-fish-size-life/

Comments

[John Umana]

Experts at the recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Science said they would be shocked if no life existed in Europa's oceans. Sorry, marine biologists, there are no liquid water oceans on Europa or under its crust, and no life has emerged there. Nor are there physical conditions to support life on Europa. (When NASA sends a probe to that moon, I predict its abiotic status will be confirmed.) Creating a living world is a massive undertaking. In this solar system, no body or object harbors life other than Earth where life emerged 3.9 billion years ago. The Milky Way galaxy, though, is teeming with life and with intelligent life.

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

John Umana:

Nobody can say for sure whether there WILL be life there. But if there is, I would predict that it won't be fashioning tools or designing buildings.

As improbable as life on Europa may seem, we've discovered life flourishing in some seemingly IMPOSSIBLE nooks & crannies on Earth, mostly near volcanic " smokers " undersea.

Europa & Titan may hold more than a single surprise or 2, I say this as a layman with marginal scientific credibility & background, just an extremely interested person who's tried to inform himself about au courant science news.

[Air Jordan]

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