Primitive life on Europa?

Press, 18 December 1982, Page 25

Primitive life on Europa?

N.Z.P.A.-A.F.P. California

A primitive form of life may exist on Europa, a moon of ’the planet Jupiter, two National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) researchers told a meeting in San Francisco. Mr Ray Reynolds and Mr Steven Squyres, emphasising that the possibility was only a slim one, told the American Geophysical Association that primitive organisms may be harboured in parts of the oceans which are believed to exist under the frozen surface of Europa. They said their investigations at the N.A.SA. Research Centre at Mountain View, California, had been based for the most part on information gathered by the United States space probes. Voyager I and Voyager 2 of

1979 and 1980, which passed close to Europa. Mr Reynolds said there might be small, temporary “oases” on Europa where some hardy organisms could survive. He likened these oases to “the same kind of primitive group that produced life on Earth.” Europa, which is about the same size as Earth’s moon, is covered with a layer of ice. Its surface shows signs of cracks several kilometres wide which are thought to have been caused by the force of Jupiter's gravity, he said. The two researchers' believe that the oceans under Europa's ice are prevented from freezing by heat emanating from the moon’s core and that the pressure and temperature of these waters could accommodate primitive organisms.