Radio Signals from Jupiter Could Aid Search for Life

Radio Signals from Jupiter Could Aid Search for Life
By Charles Q. Choi, Astrobiology Magazine Contributor - Jun 12, 2014


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True color and feature-highlighted photos of Europa. The bright feature towards the lower right of the disk is the
45 km diameter crater Pwyll. Credit: NASA. [/font]

Powerful radio signals that Jupiter generates could be used to help researchers scan its giant moons for oceans that could be home to extraterrestrial life, according to a recent study submitted to the journal Icarus. Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, possesses 67 known moons, including three giant icy moons that might possess liquid oceans underneath their frozen surfaces.

Astrobiologists want to investigate Europa, Ganymede and Callisto for extraterrestrial life, as there is life virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth.

Of Jupiter’s three largest icy moons, Europa, which is roughly the size of Earth’s moon, is favored as having the greatest potential to sustain life. Magnetic readings captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft provided compelling hints that it has an ocean, and radio scans by the probe suggest a water-rich layer beneath the surface between 50 to 105 miles (80 to 170 kilometers) thick. Recent findings even suggest its ocean could be loaded with enough oxygen to support millions of tons worth of marine life.

Scientists would like to analyze Europa’s ocean directly, perhaps with missions to bore into Europa’s icy shell using heat to melt through the ice, whirling blades to clear away rocks, and robot subs to explore the ocean. However, it remains uncertain how thick this shell is, complicating any plans to penetrate it. Models of its thickness, based on the amount of heat the shell receives from the Sun and Europa itself, predict it to be roughly 18 miles (30 kilometers) thick. In contrast, analyses of the Galileo spacecraft’s data suggest the shell is no more than 9 miles (15 kilometers) thick, and maybe as little as 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) thick.

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