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Asked by to Nat, Nate, Roberto, Sam, Sarah on 24 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Sam Connolly answered on 24 Jun 2014:
We’re not sure, but we think so! The surface of Europa is extremely cold, as you say, but Europa produces a lot of heat underneath the ice due to something called ‘tidal force’s. This means that the same thing that makes tides on the earth squashes and stretches Europa as it goes around Jupiter, producing heat. We think that this heat can keep the water closer to the core of the planet liquid, so there would be a huge ocean underneath the ice! There’s some evidence for this from the lines and cracks you can see on the surface of io (have a look!) which might be from warm water coming up through the ice and moving parts of the surface then refreezing, similar to the tectonic plates that make up the surface of the earth. The liquid water is probably a few km under the ice though and it would be very cold and dark down there… But we”ve found things like bacteria living in very very cold and dark places, including in ice as all as water! So it’s definitely possessible! There are plans to send a probe there soon, so maybe we’ll find out in not too long, which is exciting!
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Roberto Trotta answered on 24 Jun 2014:
Exactly as you say, one needs liquid water to get life. So clearly the surface of Europa, at -160C, is FREEEEZING! But, there is hope that under the crust there could be a liquid ocean, with the energy to melt the ice and keep it at a nice, cosy temperature provided not by the Sun (it’s too far away for that) but from molten lava inside Europa itself — like an underwater volcano on Earth.
There have been recent indications of something coming out of the surface which could be interpreted as a plum of water vapour — something akin to geisers on Earth (those are hot water fountains that happen in volcanic regions). So there is quite some hope that the conditions there could be right for some sort of small bacteria to live there — nothing like little green men, though.
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Nate Bastian answered on 25 Jun 2014:
The Galileo spacecraft detected salt water oceans below the surface, which likely contain hydrothermal vents, similar to those found in some of the earth’s oceans. We think that’s where life likely started on earth, so maybe the same thing happened on Europa?
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Natasha Stephen answered on 25 Jun 2014:
Europa could be a suitable environment for life similar to that which we have on Earth, yes! Under the ice, there are believed to be a type of extreme environment known as hydrothermal vents, which are vents letting out lots of hot steam from beneath the surface into water. These happen on Earth too, often known as ‘Black Smokers’ and there are some simple organisms that have been found in these harsh environments where they have been observed on Earth. Because they can survive these extreme environments, the organisms are known as “extremophiles” – they like these weird conditions! There is a possibility that there could be some similar extremophiles living on Europa, but we’ve not found them yet!
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