GETTY Europa could support alien life

Research has shown that if Europa does have a subsurface ocean, which is expected to be revealed by NASA at a conference later today, then oxygen would be plentiful down there. As such, there may be enough oxygen to support complex animal-like lifeforms, research shows. Europa, one of 67 moons that orbits Jupiter, is an icy entity for which scientists have long suspected that there are liquid oceans beneath its freezing exterior. The extra-terrestrial ocean is believed to be being fed a hundred times more oxygen than previous research had shown.

GETTY A view of Jupiter from Europa

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This is because Europa is one of the newest members of the solar system being just 50 million years old – less than one per cent of the age of our galactic neighbourhood. As a result, much of its surface is still undergoing formation, which at points is 160 kilometres thick, allowing oxidisers to seep through to the ocean.

GETTY An example of an underwater gastropod

In fact, Richard Greenburg of the University of Arizona, who authored the book ‘Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon’, said the rate of oxygen delivery to Europa’s ocean could lead to more oxygen being in Europa’s ocean than Earth’s in a few million years. Mr Greenburg says that there is enough concentration of oxygen there that it would be enough to support three billion kilograms of “macrofauna” – organisms that are animal-like such as gastropods and insect larvae.

GETTY Up close and personal with Europa