Chance of life on Jupiter’s moon

In the latest news regarding the search for extraterrestrial life, scientists are looking toward Jupiter’s moon, Europa. After comparing the geographical features of Europa and the island country, Greenland, scientists noticed similarities that support the likelihood of subterranean waters on the Jovian moon. The geographical features are called parallel ridges (raised levels of land that stretch out for long distances) and their existence on Europa has puzzled scientists for more than 20 years — until now. If Europa’s ridges formed in a similar fashion to Greenland’s, icy pockets of water may be plentiful on the moon and could be conducive to life. “Because it’s closer to the surface, where you get interesting chemicals from space, other moons and the volcanoes of Io (a neighbouring moon), there’s a possibility that life has a shot if there are pockets of water in the shell,” according to the study’s senior author, Dustin Schroeder. “If the mechanism we see in Greenland is how these things happen on Europa, it suggests there’s water everywhere.”