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New research shows that life could survive on the surface of Europe, but how could it have happened in the first place?
As scientists pondered an underground ocean on Europa since NASA's twin Voyager probes flew by Jupiter in 1979, more recent research has shown that the ocean could actually reach the surface of the ocean. ; Europa.
The icy moon is covered with cracks and fissures, and observations from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Galileo mission have shown that some of these cracks were separated. A dark, icy material seemed to have sank in the open spaces. In 2016, Hubble also found evidence of the expulsion of water vapor plums from the Europa ice surface.
Kevin Hand of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who also participated in the research, has been studying Europa for a long time. In a 2013 article co-authored with planetary science Mike Brown, Hand concluded that Europa's surface could "taste" much like the water of the ocean here on Earth – infused with salts , such as magnesium sulphates. If there is a chemical exchange between the ocean and the surface, it would create a rich chemical environment.
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Another way to introduce vital materials on the icy surface Europe is a process called meteoric gardening, or impact gardening.
"The basic idea is that on an airless world like Europa, or the moon, small meteor impacts mix and churn the surface, just like digging in a garden," says Cynthia Phillips of Jet Propulsion NASA Laboratory. with recent research, but has been very active in the Europa study. Over time, says Phillips, a random distribution of small and large impacts occurs, and varying amounts of different materials mix. Although impact gardening definitely takes place on Europa, she added, scientists do not have a good measure of the frequency of impact and therefore can not say with certainty to what depth the layer of surface material could be.
Meteorological impacts on a time scale of 10 million years would expose and mix materials from shallower depths and exposed to more intense irradiation with materials of greater depths exposed to less than 15 years. irradiation, thus reducing the effect of protection.
But ice and temperatures of minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit on the surface of Europe provide a shield. Laboratory studies by Nordheim and colleagues have shown that amino acids in low-temperature ice show "dramatically reduced rates of destruction," according to their article.
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The only way to definitely discover the potential life on Europe, however, is to go there – and NASA has planned to do it.
Europa Clipper's mission is an orbital mission whose launch is expected in the early and mid-2020s. The spacecraft would conduct a series of Europa flybys. With a suite of instruments, the mission aims to confirm the presence of the underground ocean, to characterize its composition and to study the surface-ice-ocean exchange processes. And NASA is also studying concepts for a Europa landing mission, which would be launched after Europa Clipper.
Phillips says that a concept presented by her and a group of colleagues includes instruments like an organic chemistry analyzer, a vibration spectrometer, a microscope, a camera and a seismic analyzer.
"Instruments like these, working together," said Phillips, "should be able to provide multiple evidence for whether biosignatures can be found just beneath the surface of Europa."
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