The best scientific conclusion available is that Jupiter’s moon Europa holds more than twice the saltwater of Earth’s oceans. On January 10, 2000, the Jet Propulsion Lab and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration published a press release based on data collected by the Galileo probe that was exploring Jupiter’s system. Dr. Margaret Kivelson and the Galileo probe team presented their views on what lies beneath Europa’s surface ice. They analyzed the magnetic fluctuations around Europa and Jupiter. The change in the magnetic fields is best explained by a subsurface ocean. Were the interior of Europa made of ice or less conductive material, the magnetic fields would behave differently. Saltwater conducts electricity better than ice. Thus, Europa must have an interior ocean!
The Galileo team confirmed what most astronomers already believed based on other data. The Galileo probe photographed cracks in Europa’s ice, and most scientists concluded that the Jovian moon must hold an interior ocean. In 1991, Isaac Asimov wrote that liquid existed below Europa’s surface, but concluded that life in Europa was an “extreme long shot.” Of course, he didn’t have the benefit of the new data. So Dr. Kivelson provided critical science that confirmed Europa’s ocean.
How can we possible conclude that Europa’s ocean is lifeless? We’ve never encountered a lifeless body of saltwater that big. It would be a first. The heuristic is, “Where there’s water, there’s life.” That rule of thumb guides the American space agency’s search for life.
No scientific basis exists for the assertion that Europan waters are lifeless. Such an assertion is mindless. Microbes live in every body of natural saltwater.
When someone adequately explains how an ocean that’s over twice the size of Earth’s oceans can be lifeless, I’ll consider the argument. Until then, the notion of a lifeless Europa is bunk.
SOURCES
Galileo Findings Boost Idea of Other-Worldly Ocean, Jet Propulsion Lab and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Press Release, January 10, 2000
Is there Other Life in the Solar System, Isaac Asimov’s Guide to Earth and Space (book, 1991)