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SNAPSHOT

Could life exist

on Europa?

A few places in our solar system

could host microbes, and Jupiter’s

moon Europa is a prime candidate.

Planetary scientists believe

Europa has an extensive liquid

water ocean beneath its icy

crust. The sixth-largest moon

in the solar system, Europa is

rich in silicates, probably has

an iron core, and possesses a

tenuous atmosphere and an

icy surface striated by cracks

and faults.

The extensive amounts of

water ice on Europa and tidal

f lexing help to create the sub-

surface ocean, the existence of

which was bolstered in 2014

with the detection of plate tec-

tonics on the moon’s thick ice

crust, the first detection of this

activity on a planetary body

other than Earth.

Further, in 2013, NASA

scientists detected phyllosili-

cate clay minerals on Europa’s

surface — and these minerals

on Earth are often associated

with organic molecules. The

moon also displays evidence of

water vapor plumes similar to

those of Saturn’s moon

Enceladus. — David J. Eicher

HOT BYTES >>

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COSMIC SEEDS

Once life takes hold, it

may spread between star

systems via cosmic seeds

in a well-defined pattern

like an epidemic, say

Harvard astronomers.

10 TATOO I N E S

Astronomers have now

counted 10 planets

known to orbit binary

stars, similar to Luke

Skywalker’s home

planet in Star Wars.

LIFE FROM COMETS

Impacts don’t only cause

extinctions. Experiments

show early Earth-comet

collisions could’ve made

peptides, amino acid

chains that are a key for life.

Jupiter’s large moon Europa shows a cracked icy surface in this Galileo spacecraft image; an extensive subsurface ocean likely exists below the ice, which could host microbial life.

NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SETI INSTITUTE (EUROPA); NASA/JPL-CALTECH/R. HURT (COSMIC SEEDS, 10 TATOOINES); LLNL (LIFE FROM COMETS)