Jupiter’s Moon Europa Is Spewing Water: Easier To Search For Aliens Now, NASA Says

NASA reportedly announced on Monday that Jupiter's moon Europa is sending out plumes of water vapor off its surface, based on new data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope. In the days preceding the announcement, the American Space Agency had released a teaser regarding a surprising activity on the moon, which many had interpreted as having something to do with finding aliens.

Subsequently, quite a few might have been left disappointed to know that the new finding was just about water jetting off Europa, however the discovery opened the door to another possibility - to get a closer look at its subsurface ocean which is billed as one of the strongest candidates for hosting alien life in the solar system, albeit in primitive form. If the plumes exist, the water of Europa's subsurface ocean can be accessed more easily, and thereby studied, without having to drill though the miles of ice above it.

"Europa's ocean is considered to be one of the most promising places that could potentially harbor life in the solar system," said NASA's Geoff Yoder.  "These plumes, if they do indeed exist, may provide another way to sample Europa's subsurface."

Roughly the same size as our moon, Europa is around 3,000 kilometers in diameter. However, according to calculations by researchers, Jupiter's moon has twice the amount of water as the combined oceans of our planet. Moreover, it has been suggested that the ocean is in contact with silicate rock, creating a chemical environment that is ideal for harboring primitive forms of life. The subsurface ocean on Europa remains from freezing solid because the gravity of Jupiter causes strong tidal forces.

Meanwhile, NASA has plans for a space mission to Europa, likely to be launched in the 2020s. Hence, there is a good possibility that the water plumes ejected from Europa will be examined more closely in the near future, for getting evidence of life or at least the conditions that lead to the origin of life.