Today, NASA held a teleconference on what may be the two most interesting possibilities
for life outside earth that may surpass even Mars.
These are the moons Europa and Enceladus, located at Jupiter and Saturn respectively.
We now have more evidence for the existence of liquid oceans at both of these small worlds
due to the detection of surface water plumes at both.
The teleconference was somewhat anti-climactic given that there was much trumping up by the
internet media of the scant information available when NASA announced the teleconference.
This forced NASA to tweet a spoiler alert to say that they had not detected life on
Europa to counter some of the media sensationalism insinuating that they had.
The real information NASA gleaned from an observing campaign using the Hubble Space
Telescope was that Europa not only seems to have a liquid ocean locked under it's icy
surface, that's long been suspected but still is not confirmed and needs much more study,
but that somehow that water is making it to the surface as plumes of vapor coming from
near the moon's south pole.
This is backed by the unusual surface geology of the moon, which looks more like Antarctica
than Mercury.
That means that to study life on Europa, if it exists, we may not have to drill through
miles of ice to find evidence of it.
It should be present frozen solid on the surface having been transported from deep below and
spewed onto the surface.
Lucky for us, though not so lucky for the frozen Europan lifeforms.
The plume was discovered by viewing transits of Europa as it crosses the face of Jupiter.
The thinking was, that would allow for the plumes to be more visible as silhouettes,
and sure enough they seem to be there, though that needs independent confirmation.
But it does bolster the long-standing idea of a global, saline liquid water ocean at
Europa and that supports the idea that it may be habitable for life.
But Europa is not the only such moon in the Solar System.
The Cassini space probe at Saturn has done extensive observations of the moon Enceladus
and has found evidence of these same kinds of plumes spraying water into space.
The source of the heat for maintaining these kinds of oceans is pretty straightforward.
The moons are orbiting giant planets that produce large amounts of gravity.
That gravity causes the moons to flex as they orbit generating friction and thus heat.
That geothermal heat would then make it's way into the ice shell and keep a portion
of it permanently molten as an ocean.
One method of that heat escaping is through the familiar oceanic black smoker, a rich
abode for life here on earth and may also be so for Europa and Enceladus.
But how to detect evidence of that life on the surface?
This is unfortunately very problematic.
While we know how to determine habitability, which is why the scientific focus on Mars
has centered on water and habitability, we don't really yet have a good consensus on
how to directly detect life with our instruments.
It's not as easy as it seems, but in the case of Europa it may be so simple as to just search
for organics on the surface.
This new evidence of plumes seemingly makes that a priority as these moons now seem to
outdo even Mars as potentially habitable worlds.
Enceladus and Europa are twins in a way, they share the similar distinctive surface geology
that suggests oceans, and the fact that the solar system has two such worlds known so
far may suggest that a more common way for liquid water to exist in the universe is really
these kinds of moons rather than Earth analogue planets, which may be exceedingly rare.
This new kind zone of habitability is good as far as the potential for life in the universe
is concerned in general, but bad for the possibility of intelligent life because such a situation
makes it considerably harder for an intelligence to develop technology.
Water and technology do not mix well.
Sea creatures can be smart.
We know that from our own planet.
Dolphins, for example, may only be a few hundred thousand years behind us in evolution as far
as intelligence development is concerned.
In the future, they may evolve to equal or even surpass us.
But don't fear our dolphin overlords just yet, there's a problem.
They are adapted physically for the ocean and lack opposable thumbs and an ability to
leave the water for extended periods of time.
They need fins more than they need hands, and that works against them.
This means that physiologically, even if they do develop human-level intelligence, the deck
is stacked against them to ever develop technology because they simply aren't built to do it,
even if they were capable of conceiving it.
A dolphin would have a difficult time indeed wiring up a computer and powering it with
electricity.
But it's also possible that such species may create technologies in a completely different
way than we did.
One should never say never.
All of this is interesting as a possible resolution to the Fermi Paradox.
Intelligent life may be common in the universe, but a majority of it may be stuck in a primitive
state due to arising on moons such as Enceladus or Europa forever sealed beneath the surface
in an ocean with no way of evolving suitable physiology for leaving it.
Hands are evolution's second greatest gift to us other than our brains.
Other alien species may not have been so lucky.
But if these moons are uninhabited, that brings up another possibility.
Oceans and ice shelves are familiar places and geothermal heat is useful.
This could make Enceladus and Europa prime spots for future human colonization.
While they have low gravity, much like our moon, they would be able to provide us plenty
of water, the most basic human need, and a local energy source in form of the geothermal
heat.
On the other hand, the surfaces of these world's may simply be too unstable for a colony.
At least a human one.
And that brings us to one final thought.
In addition to life arising on its own on these ocean and ice worlds, it could also
be deposited there via a meteorite from Earth.
The idea is called lithopanspermia, and it entails material being blasted off earth in
an impact with bacteria preserved within.
As shown by bacteria surviving the rigors of space by living for years inside an accidentally
contaminated camera lens on the moon recovered by one of the Apollo missions, such bacteria
inside a meteorite might end up deposited on Europa or Enceladus thereby seeding life.
In such a case, we may have cousins to meet rather than strangers when we explore these
worlds.
Thanks for listening, I am science fiction author and futurist John Michael Godier and
be sure to check out my facebook page, Twitter, and my blog the Event Horizon where I post
transcripts, articles and the like, links in the description below and be sure to check
out my books at your favorite online book retailer and subscribe to my channel for in-depth,
regular explorations into the interesting, weird and unknown aspects of this amazing
universe in which we live.