Ever since humans started thinking about life beyond our great blue planet, the vast majority of us have imagined aliens coming from "a galaxy far, far away." But what if those alien lifeforms were living in our own celestial backyard this whole time? That's what NASA thinks at least. The space agency will be looking to Jupiter's moon Europa in the coming years for signs of extraterrestrial life.
According to all of the visual evidence we have, Jupiter's fourth-largest moon looks like the best possible option for hosting life in our solar system (beyond Earth, of course). Scientists believe Europa is home to a giant subterranean ocean that would dwarf even the seven seas on our planet. Plus, there's the fact that the moon is thought to have a rocky core, which would provide the necessary minerals and compounds in that huge ocean to cultivate life.
With all of this in mind, it's no wonder NASA is training its telescopes on Europa. Following up on data collected from the space agency's Galileo mission to Jupiter in the '90s, NASA is planning a fly-by mission focusing specifically on Europa that is set to launch sometime in the 2020s. From there, NASA plans to pick a landing site on Europa using information from the fly-by mission and launch a lander mission to the moon.
"There is too much evidence lying around on the surface, the red stuff, that suggests that something is going on there," Claudia Alexander, the project manager of the Galileo mission, said in a NASA interview. "Is that an environment that is habitable for any sort of life form? By golly, we have really got to go back and figure that out."
And NASA is definitely taking Alexander's advice. The agency just released a Europa lander report, which includes preliminary details about a spacecraft designed to explore Europa's surface. When this lander isn't busy looking for life on the moon, it'll be studying the surface composition and collecting information that might help NASA actually tunnel into Europa's hidden ocean on a later mission.
n the lander report, NASA details three main tools onboard this lander that would help detect any possible lifeforms on Europa. First, there is an analyzer and spectrometer, which can identify organic compounds (necessary for life) through electromagnetic spectrum analysis. Then there is a microscope that can identify cells as small as 0.2 microns in diameter. Finally, there is another spectrometer that looks for organic compounds using UV light.
NASA has discussed a potential launch date for this lander as early as 2024. However, considering that this whole mission depends heavily on information gathered from the still grounded fly-by mission, this launch date seems a bit premature. But on the plus side, this early launch date gives off the impression that NASA has all of the science necessary to launch this mission; now it just needs that preliminary data...and funding from Washington. Hey, if anything is able to get Congress to band together and stop fighting for one second, we bet it's NASA and their valiant quest to find extraterrestrial life.