The dream of Mankind is the existence of celestial bodies that can host life, initially in our own solar system as the Earth is considered that in the near future will not be able to sustain the growing population.
Scientists claim that Europa, the satellite of the planet Jupiter, has the necessary conditions for the development of life and characterize the large ocean’s underground ocean as “potentially habitable”.
When we say life development we mean organisms that are based on the “function” of carbon biochemistry.
This theory has been developed for several years and Europa, along with the planet Mars, is considered to be the two celestial bodies to which humanity could “escape”.
It is worth adding that the delicate atmosphere of Europa consists mainly of … oxygen!
Of course, living conditions will not be the same as on Earth, but they are considered to be “tolerable” for a start.
According to scientific observations, this vast expanse of water may have been able to develop and support the growth of microbes in the past, perhaps even in the present period.
Europa, with an ocean hidden beneath a thick ice shell that surrounds its surface, has long been considered a possible habitat for extraterrestrial life in our solar system, along with other candidates such as Mars and Saturn’s moon, Egelados. A new study presented Wednesday at a geo-scientific conference underscores Europa’s potential to develop life, even at the microbial level.
“We believe that the ocean of Europa may have been habitable early on when it was formed, because our models show that the composition of the ocean may have been only slightly acidic, containing carbon dioxide and some sulfates,” Mohit Melwani Daswani said, the planetary scientist and head of the study of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“The availability of liquid water is the first step towards sustainability. In addition, the exchange of chemicals between the ocean and the rocky interior may have been significant in the past, so the potential life may have been able to use chemical energy to survive, “ he added.
Daswani said the germs resemble some of the Earth’s bacteria that use carbon dioxide for energy and could have survived using ingredients available in Europa’s early oceans.
Europa is slightly smaller than the Earth’s moon. The ocean of Europa, with a possible depth of 65 to 160 km, may contain twice as much water as the Earth’s oceans!
The study assessed whether Europa was previously habitable and did not examine its current inhabitability, a question that researchers are investigating by examining all the data collected from space missions and observations from telescopes.
According to many, in order for Humanity to be able to diffuse into space (the so-called scattering), it needs to create bases in its own solar system.
Most likely, terrafoming (geoengineering) methods will be used to completely change any “compatible” celestial bodies. A process that can take centuries.
