We have, for centuries, inquired whether or not there is life among the stars. Early science fiction writers like H.G. Wells claimed in their acclaimed novel “War of the Worlds" that life was as close as Mars. Later, in 1945, Arthur C. Clarke claimed that Europa might have water, a main plot point many years later in his book “2010: Odyssey Two,” the sequel to “2001: A Space Odyssey,” to which he received many a criticism by the science community. But as time has gone on, more and more studies have cropped up claiming that water does in fact exist off Earth within our solar system. And as the scientist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi once stated, “water is life’s matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.”
We all should remember when over a year ago, NASA did in fact confirm that water flows on the surface of Mars. But Mars isn’t the only candidate of life. As aforementioned, Jupiter’s moon Europa is a prime candidate for life within our solar system. Europa’s surface is covered in ice, and with its pinkish tinge looks like the palm of a European’s hand. With the lack of an atmosphere, the surface is naked to the onslaught of the sun’s radiation. What is key, as was discovered back in 2014, is that the water underneath the icy surface of Europa is an ocean. The radiation provides necessary energy for life, and the volcanoes in Europa’s oceans providing heat necessary to live.
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The recent development is NASA is prepared to make a new announcement this Monday. They have found what has been described as “surprising” activity. It appears that that “astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean.” The panel will take place at 2:00 p.m. and be presented by NASA’s director of astrophysics, Paul Hertz, and Baltimore’s Space Telescope Science astronomer, William Sparks.
Other candidates include a close neighbor of Europa, a fellow Jupiter moon Ganymede. Ganymede is Jupiter’s largest moon, and back in 2012, it was also found to have an ocean underneath its surface. The ocean underneath Ganymede probably has more water than Earth.
Another candidate is a familiar one, who has recently joined the party. Announced on September 23rd, the dwarf planet Pluto's “heart” was announced to be an ocean. The “heart” is the region Tombaugh Regio that is shaped like a heart on Pluto’s icy surface. The evidence was found with the help of Pluto’s moon, which is tidally locked with Pluto, which means that the same side of Pluto and the moon always face each other.
Using the region Sputnik Planum, a crater on the west of the Tombaugh Regio, and the moon, they measured the mass of the crater. It was assumed there would be a negative mass in the area because it is a crater, but there appears to a positive amount of mass anomaly, meaning there is greater mass than expected. This means that water exists underneath the surface, probably at least 100 kilometers deep.
Life hasn’t been confirmed within our solar system (beyond Earth), but with discoveries made these past few years, and especially within the last week, the evidence seems to be stacking up that there is in fact life. Hopefully, time will tell us that life is, in fact, not that far away.
