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Scientists searching for extraterrestrial life have a big advantage, according to a new study. They can now find traces of extraterrestrial life in individual ice particles ejected into space.
The researchers focused their study on Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Both are covered in ice and are thought to have large underground oceans. It also releases ice grains and plumes of gas from its ocean floor water into space.
Research results were published in a peer-reviewed academic journal scientific progress.
Cold new discovery: Discovery of life on an alien satellite
The discovery of life on Mars has been intriguing for decades, but some of the most viable options for habitable objects in the universe are the icy moons of the solar system’s gas giants.
In particular, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are thought to have great potential. Both are large icy moons that were long thought to have oceans of liquid water beneath their surfaces.
Both satellites emit plumes of gas and ice grains into space. Based on data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, it is strongly believed that in Enceladus’ case, those plumes come from liquid seawater rather than a small reservoir.
There are even more moons like Enceladus and Europa, and the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus each have dozens of moons.
Not only that, but there remains the possibility that satellites exist throughout the galaxy and even outside of the galaxy. Although it’s true that no satellites have ever been discovered outside the solar system, scientists are still confident that they exist.
Now, the problem with finding life on these moons is that they all have oceans deep beneath the surface, and those oceans could be populated by aliens.
Therefore, to find out what was in the ocean, the only real option is to drill with a probe, which is very expensive and takes a long time to send to the ocean. It’s about studying those plumes.
But do those feathers contain enough material to show evidence of life?
That’s what this study tried to answer, and the conclusion was, “Yes, it does.”
Researchers are studying the closest substitute to space ice found on Earth
The researchers, made up of scientists from NASA, the University of Leipzig, the University of Washington, the Open University, and the University of Colorado Boulder, decided to study the bacterium Sphingopyxis alaskensis, which lives in the icy waters near Alaska. . With very few nutrients and being very small, this cold-suited life form is the ideal candidate for this study because it is our best idea of what life would be like on Enceladus or Europa. is.
But can this tiny bacterium be detected in a single grain of ice? The researchers concluded that it is possible. So if it lives in Enceladus’ ocean and gets caught in an icicle, we might be able to tell.
Further support for this is that bacteria like Sphingopyxis alaskensis often enclose their cells in a type of membrane in water. This makes them part of the marine sludge that causes ocean odor and sea spray on Earth.
In theory, you could do almost the same thing with Enceladus and Europa.
“We have a theoretical understanding of how bacterial cells could become embedded in the icy material formed from liquid water on Enceladus and Europa, and then ejected into space,” said lead researcher Fabian Krenner of the University of Washington. “We describe a plausible scenario,” explained lead researcher Fabian Krenner of the University of Washington. statement.
Now, what we need to do is test this, and future missions are set to do just that.
NASA’s European Clipper mission will be equipped with a Surface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) that can sample between 10,000 and 100,000 different individual ice grains.
Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch in October 2024 and reach its destination in 2030. If there is life on Europa, as famously depicted in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” perhaps we can learn about it.
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