NASA says that proof of life on Europe could be under a few inches of ice

It's possible that life in our solar system is Scientists speculate that places like Mars or Enceladus might provide evidence of present or past life, but Europa naturally got the most out of it. be careful with our wealth of knowledge about Jupiter and his moons. conclude we may not even need to dig deep into the icecap of Europa to find out whether it hosts life or not.

Scientists knew that Europa was special from the very first time we looked at it closely. The moon, which is a little smaller than the moon of the Earth, has an ice crust that is covered with cracks. However, there are relatively few craters. This suggests that the surface is active due to the presence of liquid water beneath the surface. The heat to keep this oceanic liquid comes from the bending of the tide caused by Jupiter in orbit. There is even evidence that internal liquid water occasionally breaks out of cracks in the surface like Enceladus.

The problem with the search for life on Europa is that we have no way to penetrate this slick of ice. NASA researchers estimate that it's at least 10-30 kilometers thick (6-19 miles), and any probe that sinks as far back would have a hard time returning a signal to Earth. The new study conducted by Tom Nordheim of NASA suggests that we might not need to go to such extremes to determine if life exists on Europa.

The intense radiation of Jupiter bombards Europa's surface, destroying all the organic markers that have been able to migrate from the subterranean ocean. The question you have to answer is: how deep do you have to dig before you can characterize Europa's internal composition? If you just look at the surface, you will only know what the radiation of Jupiter does to Europa. The Nordheim team has built to date the most detailed radiation pattern of Europe, which shows that the most intense radiation bands are found near the equator. It may be that we only need to dig a few inches to get to the "real" Europe

The water (and the ice-water) is remarkably good at absorbing radiation and charged particles. Based on Nordheim's team calculations, Jupiter's radiation penetrates Europe at a depth of four to eight inches in the most irradiated areas near the equator. Near the poles, the radiation affects only the top 0.4 inches of ice. The team used amino acids as a test case to determine how deep we had to go.

If a probe were to land on Europa and dig where the radiation can bombard organic molecules, we have a real chance to detect the bricks of life. Not locating amino acids and similar molecules would not end speculation about life on Europa, but it would make the possibility more distant. The next mission of Europa Clipper could be able to cross certain low-radiation areas in the hope of detecting molecules that have not been completely destroyed by radiation.