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Traces of extraterrestrial life can be hidden under the surface of Europe – one of Jupiter's moons – only one centimeter deep. Scientists have long believed that Europe, because of the vast ocean of liquid water under its crust, is a new study conducted by NASA scientists and published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
frozen, is the most promising place for the discovery of extraterrestrial life in the solar system. But in practice, looking for these traces of life seemed unachievable, as Europe is constantly subjected to a violent radiation bombardment that would destroy any organic samples that were not in the depths. To find these signs of life, one would have to send a ship capable of performing deep digs on the impenetrable frozen surface of Europe.
In the new study, however, scientists mapped the entire European bombardment and concluded that the latitudes of the moon, it penetrates at most one centimeter. According to the authors of the study, the discovery is fundamental to determine where it would be interesting to send a landing vehicle looking for organic samples preserved on the Jovian moon
" These results indicate that future missions on the surface of Europe will not need to dig deep materials to study the composition of the subsoil in order to search for potential biological signatures, "said Tom Nordheim, lead author of NASA Rocket Propulsion Laboratory
According to Nordheim, to understand how the molecules that we can find on the surface of Europe relate to their underground oceans, it is fundamental to map the effects of radiation bombarding the moon. "
" When we examine underground materials in Europe, what do we see if these badyzes tell us what is inside the ocean, or if she e reveals materials that The model developed by NASA scientists has been able to simulate the effects of energy particles falling on Europe and compare these estimates with laboratory data that indicate to which speed such a radiation destroys the amino acids – the basic building blocks of life
According to the article, amino acids could persist for more than 10 million years at a depth of 1 to 3 centimeters, in the highest latitudes of Europe and at depths of 10 to
According to Nordheim, thanks to this discovery, the engineers responsible for a future NASA mission in Europe will know exactly where to land to increase the chances of finding traces of extraterrestrial life.
In a commentary on the article in the same issue of Nature Astronomy, John Cooper, a scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Nasa explains that future missions may find traces of life in Europe, but can hardly locate living organisms. "The best we can hope for is the discovery of biochemical fragments of life that have existed in the past, mixed with the past," he said. At least in the few inches that would be accessible to the landing module in Europe, "Cooper wrote
Yet, according to him, the results of the study are encouraging as beam flows from Lower electrons have been identified, and protons in the middle and high latitudes of Europe. "It is in these less radiated regions that we can have the greatest hope of finding recognizable signatures of the same. existence of ancestral life, "said Cooper.
NASA plans to send missions to Europe.One of them, the Clipper mission whose launch is scheduled in 2022, will enter the orbit of Jupiter and make 45 overflights in Europe, with altitudes ranging from 2,700 to 25 kilometers.
The Clipper spacecraft will take cameras, spectrometers and radar and plasma instruments to study the surface of the moon, its ocean and the material which is ejected on the surface. One of the objectives of the mission will be to examine possible orbital routes and explore the best areas for a future landing mission.
(Fábio de Castro)
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