Life on one of Jupiters Moons

[AshVX220]

Thoughts?

I thought they'd known one of Saturn's moons had an ocean of water under thick layers of ice for a few years now. So there's two possibilities within our own Solar System. Is it possible to confirm life without travelling to these planets, or do we really need to be there to confirm it?

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-03-13/has-hubble-foun...

[Einion Yrth]

There's a lot of water out there. Some of it is kept warm enough to be liquid by various processes, so who knows if it's life bearing? We may be able to build robotic spacecraft with a decent shot at detecting life within that water but they'll have to be there to look at it to stand any chance. Furthermore the less than conclusive results from Viking on Mars in the 70s suggests that pre-designed robotic experiments may struggle to settle the question conclusively.

[Mr Whippy]

Didn't you see the Europa report

I think there will be life out there in ways we can comprehend and ways we can't even begin to comprehend.

So as Einion mentions, having experiments limited to what we expect limits our ability to find anything... And trying to detect any old thing in the idea it may reveal life we can't even comprehend yet isn't ideal either.


I suppose the best thing we could kinda hope for is a comet to hit Europa and look at what splashes out... I'd bet an orbiting camera would spot some 100ft long neon green lobsters flying around!

[AshVX220]

Thanks for the replies guys,

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I can't see Bowie having a hit with that, it just doesn't scan right.