If Europa has an extraterrestrial life, we may have to dig deep to find it

If signs of life exist on the frozen moon of Jupiter Europa, they might not be as hard to find as scientists had imagined, reports a new study.

The Europa, 3,100 kilometers wide under its icy shell. In addition, astronomers believe that this water is in contact with the moon's rocky core, making possible a variety of complex and intriguing chemical reactions.

The researchers therefore consider Europa to be one of the best systems of the solar system to shelter extraterrestrial life. Europe is also a geologically active world, so samples of the buried ocean can regularly rise to the surface – for example by localized water upwelling of the ocean and / or by geyser-like degassing, whose evidence has been spotted several times by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. [Photos: Europa, Mysterious Icy Moon of Jupiter]

NASA aims to hunt such samples in the not too distant future. The agency is developing an overflight mission called Europa Clipper, which is scheduled for launch in the early 2020s. Clipper will be closely studying Europa for dozens of overflights, some of which may be able to zoom in through the plumes suspected of water vapor of the moon. And NASA is also working on a possible post-Clipper landing mission that would look for evidence of life on the surface of Europan or nearby.

It is not known, however, how deep a Europa lander would need to dig for a chance to find something. Indeed, Europa is orbiting in Jupiter's radiation zones and is bombarded by charged particles that can transform amino acids and other possible biosignatures

This is where the new study comes in.

Tom Nordheim, NASA scientist Colleagues have modeled the environment of Europa 's radiation in detail, showing how things are happening from one place to the next. ;other. They then combined these results with data from laboratory experiments, documenting the speed with which different doses of radiation cut out amino acids (a substitute here for complex biomolecules in general).

The researchers found significant variation, with some Europan locals (equatorial regions) obtaining about 10 times the radiation beat of the others (medium and high latitudes).

At the most favorable places, according to the team, a lander should probably dig only 1 inch (1 inch) into the ice to find recognizable amino acids. In high shooting areas, the depth of the target would be in the range of 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm). (This is not to say that potential European organisms would still be alive at such depths, however, the doses are high enough to cook the hardest microbes in the world, according to the team's members. study.)

said Nordheim, who is based at the California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both of whom are at Pasadena

"Even in areas of radiation the tougher on Europa, you really have nothing to do to find material that is not heavily modified or damaged by radiation, "he told Space.com C & # 39; is good news for the future landing mission, added Nordheim. "Irradiation is apparently not a limiting factor, so planners may feel free to target areas of Europe. most likely to harbor new ocean deposits – the area of fallout under a plume. example – wherever they can be.

Scientists have still not identified such promising contact areas; Europa imagery captured so far has not been clear enough. But the work of Europa Clipper should change things, says Nordheim.

"When we get the Clipper recognition, the high resolution images, it will be a completely different picture," he said. "This recognition of Clipper is really the key."

The new study was published online today (July 23) in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Originally published on Space.com. [19659005]