Webb discovered a basic building block for life on Jupiter’s moon Europa

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A basic building block of life within the global ocean may exist on the surface of Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons.

Two independent teams of astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe Europa’s frozen surface, and each analysis of the space observatory’s discoveries revealed an abundance of carbon dioxide within a given region of the frozen terrain. The two studies describing the findings were published September 21 in the journal Science.

“On Earth, life loves chemical diversity – the more diversity, the better. We are carbon-dependent life. Understanding the chemistry of Europa’s ocean will help us determine whether it is hostile to life as we know it, or what it is,” said Jerónimo Villanueva, the book’s lead author. “If it’s a good place to live.” First study and a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement.

Europa is one of several ocean worlds in our solar system alongside Earth where scientists believe life could exist. Beneath a thick ice crust, Europa harbors a global subterranean ocean that may contain twice as much water as our planet’s oceans.

But environments suitable for life need more than water: they also require a supply of organic molecules and an energy source, according to NASA.

Scientists have long wondered whether Europa’s ocean contains carbon and other chemicals necessary for life.

When Webb’s data revealed the presence of carbon on Europa’s surface, the researchers conducted an analysis to see if it had been delivered by meteorites, or if it had originated within the inner ocean.

Carbon dioxide appears to be concentrated in an area of ​​”chaos terrain” in Europe called Tara Reggio. The geologically recent area contains ice that has been broken up and returned to the surface, indicating that materials have been exchanged between the ocean and the surface.

Carbon dioxide is not stable on Europa’s surface, which also led both teams to the same conclusion that the ocean supplies it.

“We now believe we have observational evidence that the carbon we see on Europa’s surface came from the ocean. This is not trivial. Carbon is an essential biological element,” said Samantha Trumbo, lead author of the study. Second study and 51st Pegasi B Fellow at Cornell University, in a statement.

Previously, the Hubble Space Telescope detected ocean-derived salt in the same area.

“We think this means the origin of the carbon is probably in the inland ocean,” Trumbo said.

Astronomers used data from Webb’s near-infrared spectrometer to determine the signature of carbon dioxide on the moon’s surface.

“Scientists are debating how connected Europa’s ocean is to its surface. “I think this question was a big impetus for Europa’s exploration,” Villanueva said. “This suggests we may be able to learn some fundamental things about the ocean’s composition even before we drill through the ice to get the full picture. ”

Previously, astronomers made initial detections of plumes emanating from Europa’s surface using the Hubble Space Telescope. Webb did not detect any plumes while observing Europe, but that does not mean they do not occur, according to the researchers.

“There’s always the possibility that these plumes are variable and that you can only see them at certain times. All we can say with 100% confidence is that we haven’t discovered a plume,” said Heidi Hamel, an interdisciplinary Webb scientist and vice president of science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. In Europa when we made these observations with Webb.

Two future missions will be able to take a closer look at Europa in the future, including an ESA mission Explorer of Jupiter’s icy moons It was launched in April and NASA Europa ClipperIt is expected to be launched in October 2024.

Both will investigate the possibility of habitability on Europa to see if an icy ocean world could be hospitable to life.

Future observations of Europa using the Webb telescope could help astronomers determine whether there are other areas of concentrated carbon dioxide on the surface, Trumbo said.

“I’m also very interested to see if there is any evidence of organic molecules anywhere on the surface,” she said. “Our data from the James Webb Space Telescope will help achieve this as well, but Europa Clipper will be able to get up close and personal in some of the most precise and promising geological regions.”