Europa is one of my favourite moons around Jupiter as it keeps throwing up little titbits of what could be underneath that icy surface.
Underneath the thin layer of ice that encompasses Europa there is speculated to be a 100 km deep ocean. This would be ice if it wasn’t for the tidal forces of Jupiter kneeding Europa and giving it enough heat to melt the ice.
Heat and water is needed for life so this is quite an exciting moon. The only trouble with the possible ocean underneath the surface is that it may not contain enough oxygen. Radiation hitting the surface of Europa can produce a large amount of oxygen but getting the oxygen from the surface to the ocean below was a bit of a mystery.
The oxygen was thought to get through the surface by impacts from other bodies but a new study has suggested a different way. Tidal forces may cause freshly made ice from below to push upwards through the surface. This would create layer upon layer and push down the ice that was on the surface and full of oxygen. In this way oxygen rich ice would get to the ocean and if this happened all over the surface this would provide a large amount of oxygen, enough for life to exist in the ocean.
This and other ways of stirring the crust is thought to produce enough oxygen for life in 12 million years which is not that long when you think of the time that universe has been around. So, it could be, that life is swimming around or whatever alien life does, at the moment.
Europa's interior
Europa Surface
Imho its more likely to be life there than on Mars. All we need is NASA to send some serious probe mission there, because thats what they do right? – exploration.
I would agree with that. I suppose they have put so much effort into Mars that they don’t want to spend the cash to get to Europa.
It would also need a spacecraft that could drill km’s through the ice just in case there’ no life on the surface.
Well, a probe probably wouldn’t so much “drill” through the surface, but rather melt a vertical tunnel; it would just require a sufficient heat source.
Yes you are right although drilling and melting results in the same end product.