The Jovian moon Europa, your home away from home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The search for extraterrestrial life has shifted. \u00a0Martians are no longer the chief focus, despite earlier fascination with them.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, scientists are looking for microbial life, and things of that sort. \u00a0(\u201cAlgae, phone home!\u201d) \u00a0And on Europa, not on Mars.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m aware of the fact that there\u2019s life in Europe. \u00a0I\u2019ve met actual Belgians, Swiss, Germans, Italians, and even French.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Europa is one of the moons of Jupiter, and it seems the best place, right now, to search for currently-existing life beyond the sphere\u00a0on which we dwell.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The thought is that life might have developed in several places during the 4.6 billion years since our solar system was formed. \u00a0Mars and Venus probably had lots of liquid water \u2014 seemingly a requirement for any form of life that we can realistically imagine \u2014 but that was quite a few months ago. \u00a0In the intervening period, as Van R. Kane puts it in an article in the current issue of Scientific American<\/em>, \u201cone became a hot hell and the other a frozen globe.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saturn\u2019s moon Enceladus seems to have a substantial reservoir of water in liquid form, but scientific attention is focused nowadays on Europa, which is closer to us and to the sun. \u00a0Europa\u2019s ocean, located mostly below a thin crust of ice, may be a hundred kilometers (over sixty-two miles) deep, which means that, although Europa is significantly smaller than Earth, it may have twice as much liquid water. \u00a0And that water may have been liquid from the very formation\u00a0of Europa, which would yield quite enough time for biological life to arise.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Europa is rocky, which means that there are minerals and other life-essential elements available for water-born life. \u00a0And nearby Jupiter, one of the giant planets, exercises enough pull on Europa to cause heat through \u201ctidal flexing\u201d and probably to stimulate volcanos. \u00a0Which means that there could be rich ecosystems clustered around hydrothermal vents on the moon\u2019s seafloor, as there are on Earth. \u00a0The tidal forces also sometimes break the ice crust, permitting water to emerge onto the surface and even creating occasional water plumes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not quite what you picture as alien life when you were growing up. \u00a0But potentially interesting, nonetheless.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The search for extraterrestrial life has shifted. \u00a0Martians are no longer the chief focus, despite earlier fascination with them. \u00a0 Instead, scientists are looking for microbial life, and things of that sort. \u00a0(\u201cAlgae, phone home!\u201d) \u00a0And on Europa, not on Mars. \u00a0 Now, I\u2019m aware of the fact that there\u2019s life in Europe. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Jupiter's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/04\/600px-Europa-moon.jpg\")
<\/a>