Could Life Exist Near Europa's Surface? Published: 2000 April 14
2:56 pm ET (1856 UT) by Bruce Moomaw Special to SpaceViews Life
on Europa may be surprisingly close to the surface, despite
differing opinions of the thickness of the Jovian moon's icy
crust, two groups of planetary scientists reported at an
astrobiology conference this One of the main revelations at the
First Annual Conference on Astrobiology, held at NASA's Ames
Research Center in early April, was that a startling new idea is
starting to take significant hold among Europa researchers: that
life on Europa may not be limited to a hypothesized subsurface
ocean but could be astonishingly near the surface. The two teams
agree on this concept even though they disagree on the thickness
of Europa's icy crust. Richard Greenberg of the University of
Arizona told conference attendees that he believes the ice layer
is just a few kilometers thick, while Brown University's Robert
Pappalardo believes the ice crust may be much thicker, with an
upper, brittle