Places Where There May Be Life

Europa is known as a planet very

similar to Earth’s Poles. Cracks and sulfur-rich matter are all over Europa.
By looking at these, scientists can get a glimpse of the interior of the
moon. There even is a layer of liquid below the surface that is two times
deeper than all of Earth’s oceans joined together. This a probable place for
life to be right in current time. Even so, microbial life may be living in
these seas right now. Infrared-like evidence has been found in
“fingerprint” form. It is unknown about what exactly these signals are
made of. An experiment happened to solve this mystery. It concluded that
the same signals found at Europa are found in the glacial ice in High
Canada. These materials consisted of gypsum, calcite, and sulfur. On the
other hand, Europa has high radiation, very low temperatures, and less Europa
oxygen.

Jupiter is known to be very dangerous. It can harm space probes and Titan has extreme conditions of -179ºC and while its only water is
any other forms of life on the surrounding moons because of the high frozen solid, it has a unique mixture of liquid methane and ethane
energy particles. Radiation belt maps were made around Jupiter to see throughout makes some scientists wonder if it may be able to
where radiation could sizzle any chemical compounds. Within Jupiter’s harbor life unlike anything we have ever seen. This methane and
radiation belt lies the moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Electrons ethane behaves in the same way as our water cycle, and is the first
and ions from solar wind are constantly meshed in the magnetic field, place we have found that does this. They start as liquid, evaporate
creating auroras. These belts are much more intense than Earth’s. Along into clouds in the atmosphere, and then become liquid again and
with this, small meteorites (three meters thick in size) are disembark in are absorbed. While there are similarities here, any life found there
the atmosphere. would be nothing like earth’s animals.
Since our DNA is made with oxygen and
takes its shape because of water, if life
does end up being there, it would be
completely different from any normal
ideas of what life is. If there is life
there, it would be a form of
extremophile, or something that is able
Jupiter
to live in extreme conditions that would
Ganymede Callisto be impossible for most life we know of
to survive in if in the same situation.

An artistʼs rendition of what Titan may look like on the surface


The view of Saturn from Enceladus
Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, has also been looked at as a
place where we may find life. When the spacecraft Cassini first saw
water vapor being shot out of the surface, it was one of the first
places that scientists looked at for life after Mars. This water vapor
has been a little controversial for scientists, as there are two theories
for why this might be happening, and both have entirely different
outcomes for astrobiologists. The oldest theory is that there is
boiling water on Enceladus’s surface, and geysers are shooting it out
as vapor. With this theory, scientists added it to the list of places
where life could be, since there would be liquid water. The second
theory states that the water on Enceladus’s surface is only ice, and is
going through a process that makes it go immediately from a solid to
a gas. There is evidence to support both theories, but even when
they use the same thing as proof, what they found has been different
each time. Because of these contradictions, Cassini was scheduled to
take more samples of the surface and have them analyzed again.

Mars may have had ancient lakes and rivers, and maybe even
oceans. At one point, it may have been filled with water, and
with that, there might have been life. Astrobiologists speculate
that the reason for Mars being such a desert today is that an
asteroid hit Mars, which could have ended any life that was
there. Mars also has a problem with rust, and its soil is full of
iron-bearing compounds that after long a long time have
reacted with trace amounts of oxygen and water vapor in Mars'
atmosphere. Since DNA requires oxygen and water, the
evidence of both of these could suggest that there may have
once been life.