Scientists find way to spot alien life in tiny ice grains from moons

• Published date: 24 March 2024
• Author: AARON REICH
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

The researchers focused their study on Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus. Both are icy and are thought to have large subsurface oceans. They also emit plumes of ice grains and gas from that undersea water into space

The study findings were published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Science Advances.

A cold new discovery: Finding life on alien moons

While the discovery of life on Mars has been tantalizing for decades, some of the most feasible options for inhabited bodies in space are the icy moons of the solar system's gas giants.

In particular, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are thought to hold considerable potential. Both are large ice-covered moons long thought to have oceans of liquid water under the surface.

Both moons emit plumes of gas and ice grains into space. In Enceladus's case, those plumes are strongly believed to come from liquid ocean water rather than some small reservoir, based on data from NASA's Cassini probe.

There are more moons like Enceladus and Europa, too, with the gas giants of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus all having dozens of moons each.

Not only that but there remains the possibility of moons throughout the galaxy and beyond. While it is true that no moons have ever been discovered outside the solar system, scientists are still sure that they exist.

Now, the problem with finding life on these moons is that the oceans are all deep below the surface, and those oceans would be where the aliens would be living.

So, to find out what was in that ocean—short of drilling with a probe, which is very expensive and will take a long time to send there—the only real option is to study those plumes.

But would those plumes even have enough material to give evidence of life?

That is what this study sought to answer, and the conclusion was that yes, they do.

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