Water. Chemistry. Energy. This is the basic recipe for life as we know it billions of years ago these
ingredients combined to create life on our planet but are we all alone spinning around in a lifeless
universe it turns out we might not have that far to go to find the answer one of Jupiter's
moons Europa seems to have all the right stuff for life and scientists are chomping at the bit to get
some space probes and satellites there to explore it further is europa a mini earth in the making
welcome back to Factnomenal today we're traveling to Europa a moon that might be coming to life
Europa is covered in a layer of ice 10 to 15 miles thick there are no rocks no volcanoes none of the
messy chaotic stuff that comes to mind when we think about the creation of life on our own planet
just ice from pole to pole but in fact these conditions might be pretty close to how life
started here on earth the icy origins theory for life on earth goes hand in hand with another
theory called RNA world we talk about RNA world in more detail in an earlier video about the alien
origins of life on earth so check that out if you want to learn more basically there's a paradox
at the center of the origin of life two essential ingredients for life DNA and proteins can't exist
without each other DNA needs proteins to exist and proteins need DNA to form so which came first
the chicken or the egg the answer could be neither RNA DNA's single-helixed cousin can perform the
functions of both DNA and proteins in RNA world strands of RNA began folding into complex shapes
when the world was devoid of life eventually they evolved into little molecular construction sites
called ribozymes that sped up chemical reactions to the point where RNA began to self-replicate
they became the original self-replicating molecule from which all life developed through controlled
experiments scientists have found that RNA strands could have really liked ice frozen
temperatures normally slow down chemical reactions but some of these ribozymes don't seem to mind
researchers have observed that they can actually become more efficient at sub-zero temperatures
what's more ice is full of microscopic pockets and channels of water perfect for concentrating
molecules together and stimulating a roiling interaction that could lead to life but there's a
problem with this theory most of the experiments with RNA in ice have to place an origin strand
into the mix and then see what happens afterwards ice may not be enough to kick-start life we
might need volcanism or some other source of concentrated energy does europa have what it takes
let's return to the three conditions necessary for life water chemistry and energy the main reason
europa has all three is because of the giant ball it orbits jupiter jupiter is a behemoth of
a planet and because it's so big it has a couple of pretty incredible features that act upon europa
and give it the chemistry and energy that would be needed to sustain life on earth the sun provides
nearly all of the energy for life however europa is too far away from our big solar
battery to harness its energy in any useful way but it has jupiter jupiter emits massive amounts
of radiation and it has the strongest magnetic field of any planet in our solar system 10 times
stronger than earth's europa orbits jupiter deep within this magnetic field as a result the moon is
relentlessly bombarded with electrified particles called ions these ions slam into europa's icy
surface and create chemical reactions frozen molecules of water are split apart into oxygen and
hydrogen and the oxygen which is an element quick to react with other elements and molecules could
easily transform into carbon dioxide and other organic compounds one of these other compounds may
be formaldehyde formaldehyde is like an organic biofuel that many organisms can use as energy
one of the earth's most common bacteria feeds off the carbon in formaldehyde and if the compound is
plentiful on europa then there's good reason to suspect that there are microbes feeding off of it
there too but in order for any of these chemical reactions to sustain life the compounds they
produce need to reach the ocean buried beneath the miles deep sheet of ice encasing europa
how could they possibly manage such a thing once again it's Jupiter to the rescue
the question we should address first though is this how can there be any water on europa at all
scientists agree that the moon certainly has this third vital ingredient for life
in fact although europa is a quarter the size of earth its subglacial ocean
might be twice as large as all earth's oceans combined and could be nearly a hundred miles
deep at points if water is essential for life then europa seems to have more than enough of it
but again europa's far from the sun way out in the cold depths of space in theory its
ocean shouldn't exist at all but again it has Jupiter Jupiter's massive gravitational field
creates a tidal force within europa in a kind of reversal of what goes on between earth's
oceans and our moon now if europa was the only moon orbiting Jupiter the tidal force would be
huge but it would be constant but europa's two closest sister moons Io and Ganymede also exert
gravitational forces as it spins around Jupiter europa stretches and contracts like a rubber band
this creates friction which causes something called tidal heating europa's core is literally
heated up making its liquid ocean possible europa's ocean is most likely salty if this
is the case then jupiter's mammoth magnetic field could actually conduct electricity deep within its
waters researchers have run simulations showing how this could create a jet stream near europa's
equator that would run in the opposite direction to its rotation creating cracks in its icy shell
jupiter's magnetic energy would also accumulate near europa's poles and thin the ice sheets in
the north and south leading to melting a picture of a turbulent lively electrically charged europa
is starting to emerge one where molecules are combining into compounds that could provide the
necessary energy for life and have a very good chance of reaching the ocean beneath the ice
gravitational tides and magnetic energies seem to be teaming up to wreak havoc on europa's ice sheet
massive cracks have recently been observed on the moon double-ridged gashes that rise more
than a thousand feet with half-mile wide valleys in between these cracks could create pockets of
water deep below the surface of the ice sheet which has led scientists to think that there's a
distinct possibility that exchanges occur between the subsurface ocean and the top layers of the ice
sheet also as pockets of water melt inside the ice near the poles the water becomes pressurized
and then erupts these cryovolcanoes are so strong that they can spew water up into space there's a
debate about whether or not these cryovolcanoes can originate from the subglacial ocean itself
researchers studying them think that on future missions to europa spacecraft lucky enough to be
in the area when one erupts could possibly collect some of the water that spewed out if the eruption
came from the ocean's depths there's a good chance we could find life and could avoid the costly and
difficult task of trying to drill down through 10 miles of ice but if the cryovolcano erupted
from a pocket pressurized in the ice shelf then the chances of finding life might not be so great
in any case it's becoming increasingly clear that europa's ice sheet is permeable interaction
between its icy surface and its hidden ocean makes life there a tantalizing possibility
let's return to rna world for a second as we mentioned earlier
one of the biggest flaws in this theory is that it can't explain the initial spark of energy
needed to create the very first rna strand that spark could very well have come from volcanoes
which provided the energy necessary to begin a chain of chemical reactions
that led to life as we know it it just so happens that europa is orbiting jupiter with her sister
io the most volcanically active object in the solar system io has over 400 active volcanoes
at any given time between 50 and 100 of them are spewing out tons of sulfur dioxide into jupiter's
orbit io's volcanoes emit so much sulfur dioxide that every second a ton of the gas becomes plasma
creating a donut shaped belt around the entirety of jupiter this sulfur and other chemicals pass
through europa's orbit and contribute their chemical ingredients to europa's cold petri dish
but europa may have its own volcanoes in 2020 a team of researchers published a paper
titled tidally induced magmatic pulses on the oceanic floor of jupiter's moon europa
the team used a model to show that the tidal friction that keeps europa's ocean liquid
also helps heat up its insides to temperatures high enough to create silicate melt also known as
magma based on the models it's possible that their volcanoes near europa's poles
where the tidal heating is most powerful the volcanoes would be similar to earth's
own hydrothermal vents the sites where many people think life began europa's deep sea
volcanoes could provide the right chemistry to kick off life there in a very similar way
we won't know for sure until we send more spacecraft to explore jupiter's icy moon what we
do know up to this point is thanks in large part to the galileo mission galileo launched in 1989
and reached jupiter six years later it was the first spacecraft to explore the outer solar system
it helped us discover europa's subglacial ocean and gave us details about the cryovolcanic
plumes of water erupting from its surface the europa clipper scheduled to set off for this
moon of jupiter in 2024 will hopefully provide some more definitive answers about life on europa
the spacecraft will orbit europa taking samples from its thin atmosphere and using radar to probe
its depths for signs of deep sea volcanic activity the discovery of life on europa would open up a
whole can of worms if our own tiny solar system has two objects with life then how many more
planets and moons scattered throughout the cosmos might have the right conditions water chemistry
and energy it's a simple but elusive recipe what do you think is there life out there let us know
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