One of Jupiter's moons may hold potential for life, NASA says

Earth is occasionally called a “pale blue dot,” a speck of rare life in vast swaths of space. But a NASA study last week suggests that the same chemical energy that powers life on Earth might also exist elsewhere in our solar system.

Scientists calculated that Jupiter’s moon Europa, more than 390 million miles away from Earth, could produce a ratio of hydrogen and oxygen similar to that of Earth, which the agency called “a key indicator of the energy available for life.”

Though Europa is covered in ice, scientists have speculated that a liquid, salty sea lies beneath its surface and around a rocky core. NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California studied how that interior ocean might naturally produce hydrogen by interacting with its rocky sea floor, and how oxidants like oxygen and similar compounds might also be created by the interaction of the moon’s icy surface with radiation from its parent planet.

“The cycling of oxygen and hydrogen in Europa's ocean will be a major driver for Europa's ocean chemistry and any life there, just as it is on Earth,” said JPL planetary scientist Steve Vance in the release.

The two elements, together, could help connect a “circuit” that might make life possible, added JPL planetary scientist Kevin Hand in the statement.

"The oxidants from the ice are like the positive terminal of a battery, and the chemicals from the seafloor, called reductants, are like the negative terminal,” Hand said. “Whether or not life and biological processes complete the circuit is part of what motivates our exploration of Europa.”

But life requires more than just hydrogen and oxygen building blocks: Scientists are planning to also study elements like nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and carbon, which are fundamental for life forms on Earth.

Part of that future investigation is already underway. The agency wrote that it hopes to send a spacecraft to orbit Jupiter sometime in the 2020s which will fly by Europa and take photos to learn more about what makes up the planet and what it might contain.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 5:22 AM with the headline "One of Jupiter's moons may hold potential for life, NASA says."