Ocean Found on Jupiter’s Moon
We are water people. When a story with water pops up, it’s hard to look away. This story in particular is most unusual for us to write about but also very interesting for the possible future of humanity.
Scientists have recently made a discovery saying the Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, could be the best spot to find alien life and be habitable to life itself. They have calculated that water in the subsurface ocean of Europa could have been formed by breakdown of water-containing minerals due to either tidal forces or radioactive decay.
“Indeed it was thought that this ocean could still be rather sulfuric, but our simulations, coupled with data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, showing chloride on Europa’s surface, suggests that the water most likely became chloride rich,” Dr. Melwani Daswani said. “In other words, its composition became more like oceans on Earth. We believe that this ocean could be quite habitable for life.”
The oceans on Europa are perhaps 40 to 100 miles (65 to 160 kilometers) deep, may contain double the water of Earth’s oceans. That could contain many secrets beneath it’s surface.
“If a place is habitable, it does not mean that it is actually inhabited, just that the conditions could allow for the survival of some extremely hardy forms of life that we know of on Earth.” said Daswani.
It may not be in many of our lifetime’s but the future could look very different for generations to come if they end up exploring Europa more. Until then, enjoy life as we know it here on Earth.
