Is the water on Europa drinkable?

The best places to look for life are where the ocean overlies warm rock. This may be the case inside Europa (Jupiter) and Enceladus (Saturn), but chemical reactions with the rock would make the liquid water salty, so not good to drink.

Is the water on Europa salt water?

Structure. Like our planet, Europa is thought to have an iron core, a rocky mantle, and an ocean of salty water. Unlike Earth, however, Europa's ocean lies below a shell of ice probably 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick, and has an estimated depth of 40 to 100 miles (60 to 150 kilometers).

Is the water on Europa radioactive?

Europa's surface is blasted by radiation from Jupiter. That's a bad thing for life on the surface – it couldn't survive. But the radiation may create fuel for life in an ocean below the surface. The radiation splits apart water molecules (H2O, made of oxygen and hydrogen) in Europa's extremely tenuous atmosphere.

What is the liquid on Europa?

Scientists' consensus is that a layer of liquid water exists beneath Europa's surface, and that heat from tidal flexing allows the subsurface ocean to remain liquid.

Can humans breathe on Europa?

Europa has a thin oxygen atmosphere, but it is far too tenuous for humans to breathe. From the surface of Europa, Jupiter appears 24 times larger than the moon appears in our sky. Europa's magnetic field shields its surface from Jupiter's deadly radiation.

Sending a Submarine into Europa's Ocean

Can we colonize Europa?

The transportation of humans to Europa would be one of the primary challenges to colonization. Since Jupiter is on average 630.4 million kilometers away from Earth at a given time, it would take at least 3 years just to get into Europa's orbit plus additional time to land.

Is there fish on Europa?

Scientists Say Jupiter's Moon Europa Might Be Teeming With Fish.

Can we land on Europa?

Landing sites

At Europa, it would have to land on the surface, matching its velocity, but with essentially no atmosphere there is no "entry", it is just a descent and landing. The Planetary Society noted that NASA called this DDL — de-orbit, descent, and landing.

How did Europa get its water?

It is far from the Sun and yet has a liquid water ocean. The reason Europa has liquid water is because tides — similar to the tidal interactions between Earth and its moon — cause Europa's ice shell and interior to flex during the course of its orbit around Jupiter.

Is life possible on Titan?

Although there is so far no evidence of life on Titan, its complex chemistry and unique environments are certain to make it a destination for continued exploration.

Is there oxygen on Europa?

Europa does have an atmosphere, although tenuous. This atmosphere is composed solely of oxygen. Unlike our atmosphere, the oxygen in Europa's atmosphere is likely not produced biologically. Europa's atmosphere is maintained by charged particles that hit its cold surface and produce water vapor.

What if Europa was Earth's moon?

So, if Europa were moved and placed next to Earth, the moon would suddenly find itself within the habitable zone, and it would start to melt. Due to the lacking atmosphere around the moon (it has one, but it is tenuous and very thin), the ice transitions straight from a solid to a gas.

Does Titan have liquid water?

Titan is an icy moon with a surface of rock-hard water ice, but Titan also likely has a liquid water ocean beneath its surface.

How salty is the ocean on Europa?

The huge ocean sloshing beneath the ice shell of the Jupiter moon Europa may be intriguingly similar to the seas of Earth, a new study suggests. Scientists have generally thought that sulfate salts dominate Europa's subsurface ocean, which harbors about twice as much water as all of Earth's seas put together.

What if Earth was a moon of Jupiter?

Since Jupiter's gravitational pull accelerates these objects to a collision speed of about 216,000 km/h (134,000 mph), at the minimum. If Earth became one of Jupiter's moons, we're now in the line of fire. As a much, much smaller planet we're less likely to be able to absorb those kind of impacts.

Are Jupiter's moons habitable?

'Europa is one of the best candidates for habitability because the liquid water is in direct contact with the silicate mantle. ' Another important factor regarding the habitability of the moons is how much radiation from Jupiter is hitting them.

How cold is Europa's ocean?

While the subsurface ocean is relatively warm (exact temperature not known yet), on the almost airless surface of Europa the temperatures are always a bitter minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 160 degrees Celsius) or lower.

Why is Europa special?

A prominent feature of Europa is its high degree of reflectivity. Europa's icy crust gives it an albedo — light reflectivity — of 0.64, one of the highest of all of the moons in the entire solar system. Scientists estimate that Europa's surface is about 20 million to 180 million years old, which makes it fairly young.

Can Europa be terraformed?

Europa is the fourth galilean moon and icy natural satellite of Jupiter. Terraforming Europa would be far easier than Io, but more difficult than Mercury, Venus, Mars, Ceres, Pluto and Luna. This satellite would first after the Moon need a new thick atmosphere. The atmospheric pressure would have to be around 7 bars.

Are moons habitable?

Most notably, it was found that moons at distances between about 5 and 20 planetary radii from a giant planet could be habitable from an illumination and tidal heating point of view, but still the planetary magnetosphere would critically influence their habitability.

Are there whales on Europa?

There are no fish or whales or coral on Europa. But Europa's massive ocean is a salty one—and according to planetary geologist Kevin P. Hand and geochemist Richard W. Carlson, the specific salt that fills its sea, sodium chloride (or table salt), is the same salt that is crucial to life on Earth.

Is there plant life on Europa?

The surface of Europa is a terrible place to look for life, with the exception being that the liquid ocean of Europa explodes onto it's surface regularly, so evidence of life, if it exists, may well be found on the surface, but it's unlikely that anything can live there for long. It's very inhospitable.

What life could live on Jupiter?

Potential for Life

The temperatures, pressures, and materials that characterize this planet are most likely too extreme and volatile for organisms to adapt to. While planet Jupiter is an unlikely place for living things to take hold, the same is not true of some of its many moons.