Europa, one of the major Jupiter’s satellites, has been stimulating the interest of scientists for decades because of its particular features. It’s in fact a satellite slightly smaller than the Moon covered with a layer of water which estimated thickness is about one hundred kilometers (sixtytwo miles). Externally, this water is frozen but there’s an inner layer in which there’s substantially an ocean formed by water kept liquid by the heat generated by the “tides” caused by Jupiter’s powerful gravity. The big planet in fact literally deforms Europa due to the fact that the satellite has an eccentric orbit so it gets slightly nearer and farther from Jupiter. This phenomenon also causes the large cracks observed on the icy surface of Europa.

Europa, together with the other big Jupiter’s moons, was discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610 and the Galileo spacecraft sent in 1989 to study the Jovian system was named after the great astronomer. The mission ended in 2003 when the spacecraft disintegrated into the atmosphere of the bit planet it was directed towards to destroy it in order to avoid any risk of contamination of its satellites. The data sent by the probe were in such amount that today scientists are still studying them and the latest discovery is a sort of great lake beneath the surface of Europa.

Dr. Britney Schmidt and her team focused their investigation on two regions of the type called chaos terrain and created a model that explains their formation. The observations made on Earth in Antarctica formed the basis for the investigation of the Galileo spacecraft’s data arrived from Europa.

[ad name=”AmazonScience”]

The interesting thing is that the formation mechanisms hypothesized include an exchange of material and energy between the frozen crust and the lake below. This is important also because the ice surface appears to be much less thick: scientists believe that a very thick crust is a negative element for the emergence of life, instead the formation of this great lake may have created an environment much more favorable.

A confirmation of this discovery and a real search for possible life forms on Europa would require a new mission. There’s actually a NASA project to send a new spacecraft by 2022, it remains to be seen if they can really do that considering their budget issues.

The possibility of life on Europa had been theorized decades ago. In the novel “2010: Odyssey two” by Arthur C. Clarke, the mysterious monolith appeared for the first time in “2001: A Space Odyssey” turns Jupiter into a star to allow life on Europa to develop. Before being destroyed, the computer HAL 9000 sends a final message: “ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.”. In reality we may be able to land on Europa and discover life forms.