Aliens 'most likely' on moons of Jupiter and Saturn

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Professor Charles Cockrell, who leads the UK Centre for Astrobiology, insists that the search for other life means searching for other micro-organisms, a search which has so far drawn a complete blank. He said: “In terms of life beyond the Earth, astrobiology is still a field that is trying to understand whether the Earth is a unique example of life or whether we might find life elsewhere.”

The official launch of the centre today sparked a debate among leading scientists, who believe that the search for other life should be extended to the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, rather than focused on Mars as has been done previously.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Dr Robert Pappalardo, Senior Research Scientist in the Planetary Science section at NASA said: “For reasons I don’t really understand the wider solar system and the potential for life there has not been high priority.”

He raised concerns about explorations of the icy moons of Jupiter, known as the Europa Mission, being delayed by NASA in favour of exploring Mars instead.

 

Dr Pappalardo added: “I worry that if Europa exploration is delayed, but then finally it happens some day, we might look back and say ‘why didn’t we do that sooner?’ Imagine 50 years from now we get a lander there and find signs of life. All this time we’ll have been looking in the wrong place.”

NASA’s latest project to identify, capture and relocate an asteroid have also been criticised for the cost – 2014 budget proposals include $100 million to get the asteroid project up and running, money some believe would be better spent on exploring wider space.

Professor Andrew Coates, head of planetary science at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory said while the NASA projects sound fantastic, they are expensive and he feels they could be “missing out on some of the basic science and exploration NASA should be doing.”

The European Space Agency is planning to investigate the possibility of life on Jupiter, with its Jupiter Icy moons Explorer (JUICE) mission set to investigate three of Jupiter’s moons in a mission that will start in 2022.

Professor Michelle Docherty, of Imperial College and lead investigator for the magnetometer that will fly on the mission told the programme: “What we want to understand is whether the moons of Jupiter have the environments you need to support life.

“You need there to be liquid water, you need there to be heat, you need stability over time and you need organic compounds. We think Ganymede Callisto and Europa have all of those, but we won’t know until we get there.”

The JUICE mission is set to launch in 2022 and reach Jupiter by 2030.

 

by Clair Carter

The Telegraph