January 22, 2024

Jaimah Nusrat

11th Grade

Williamsville East High School

The sky and cosmos are our limit; at least, that’s what we’ve believed. However, with our ever-growing population, we need to take the time to ask the question: Why limit ourselves to a planet of 71% water and an oxygen-rich atmosphere, when we could live among the stars and explore the galaxies? What keeps us tied to the planet we insistently call home when we have the potential to experience daring adventures and become the next Captain Marvel? With the progress and data we have acquired, it would only hinder our advancements if we failed to consider space life as significant to the future of Earth.

As of 1972, scientists have discovered that Europa, one of Jupiter's 95 moons, has a surface composed of water ice. Its size is comparatively smaller than Earth’s moon, but its 10-15 miles of icy water gives it a sunlight reflection rate of 5.5. If Europa replaced our Moon, our night sky would be remarkably more lustrous and radiant. However, consistent with a surface of ice, Europa also has a frosty season that is unique to Jupiter since Jupiter stands almost upright. But not to worry, furry boots and wooly mittens will always be considered á la mode and trendy during Europa’s Christmas holidays. 

Europa’s closest encounter to human observation became visible around the 1970s. NASA’s spacecraft Voyager 2 transmitted fascinating images of Europa’s bright, smooth surface of interlacing bands that further emphasize its filled cracks of icy substances had been active years ago. The lack of craters and mountains only confirmed its young age and that something was helping to keep its rigid structure, like the frozen crust of the moon’s surface. Moving forward to the 1990s, scientists conducted a Galileo Mission. However, they came to discover that there was a disturbance in Jupiter’s magnetic field influenced by a conductive electricity-like material within Europa. Researchers inferred that the magnetic field’s impact could have been because of large bodies of oceanic salty water. Europa’s global ocean outmatches Earth’s even with its significantly smaller size, containing twice as much water, which is very favorable to biological systems. Taking in Earth’s history of evolving organisms filtering oxygen from the earliest memories of oceanic life, it is possible that Europa can provide substantial oxygen to its ocean and create a living environment suitable for living organisms, and at some point even humans. 

Though we can consider Europa as a growing teen, it is still old enough to develop life after 4 billion years of existence. Its fulfillment of liquid water, chemical material, and energy sources all check off the list of potentially inhabiting life. With an alternative to photosynthesis, Europa can thrive differently with chemical reactions in opposition to using sunlight to grow plants. Life on Europa has to live beneath its icy core but with enough technology, it may be possible to overcome that too. The crucial components to creating life start with elements such as carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, which is something Europa has. However, it, unfortunately,  mixes with the radiation Jupiter reflects, which only leads to more problems without solutions. Life cannot compete with radiation, but from other perspectives, it could be used as an energy or fuel source. If scientists could accommodate a sample of the smallest microbe living with Jupiter’s moon, Europa’s chances of supporting life independently would increase tremendously, and we could start implementing an ocean of possibilities.