Scientists Find Carbon in Jupiter's Moon's Ocean

One of the essential elements for life, carbon is present in the enormous subsurface ocean of Europa, one of Jupiter's numerous moons. The carbon dioxide ice on the moon's surface is thought to have come from the salty ocean that lurks beneath a 10 mile-thick shell of ice, according to measurements made by the James Webb satellite telescope. The results support the idea that Europa's ocean may be the most promising location in the solar system to hunt for extraterrestrial life, even though they do not provide an answer to the query of whether it lurks in the icy, dark depths.

Dr Christopher Glein, a geochemist at Southwest Research Institute, in Texas, US, said that if there is life in Europa's ocean, it is unknown as of yet. But this latest discovery strengthens the argument that the ocean of Europa would be a suitable place to look for extant life. From an astrobiology standpoint, the environment seems alluring.

Europa is somewhat smaller than Earth's moon, with a width of 2,000 miles. Imaginary lifeforms would have to deal with some extremely harsh conditions, including surface temperatures that hardly ever go above -140C and radiation from Jupiter. However, Europa's ocean, which is 40–100 miles (64–160 km) deep and 10–15 miles beneath its frozen surface, has elevated the moon to the forefront of the race to find extraterrestrial life. The chemistry of the deep ocean, particularly the quantity of carbon and other biologically necessary elements, determines whether or not it has the capacity to support life.

The presence of solid CO2 ice on Europa's surface has previously been discovered, but it was unclear if this material had come from meteorite impacts or the deep ocean. The distribution of CO2 on Europa's surface was mapped in the most recent data using near-infrared views from the James Webb telescope. This revealed a CO2 hotspot in Tara Regio, an area of so-called "chaos terrain" that is around 695 sq miles (1,800 sq km) in size. Here, blocks of ice that have been driven to the surface by geological processes are mostly visible on the surface as glacial fractures and frozen ridges.