Abstract
The satellites of the planet Jupiter were discovered early in the 17th century. The most intriguing possibilities for detecting extraterrestrial microbial life lie within the Jovian system, particularly in Europa, the second of the Galilean satellites.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Supplementary Reading
Bertola, F. (1992) Da Galileo alle Stelle. Biblos Edizioni, Padua. [This book was published during the celebrations at the University of Padua to commemorate the fourth century of the nomination of Galileo Galilei as a lecturer of Mathematics in that university, where he spent 18 years of very productive work.]
Europa Ocean Conference at San Juan Capistrano Research Institute. 12-14 November, 1996. Book of summaries (pp. 90). San Juan Capistrano Research Institute. 31872 Camino Capistrano. San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675.
Feinberg, G. and Shapiro, R. (1980) Life beyond Earth: The intelligent Earthling’s Guide to Life in the Universe, William Morrow and Co., New York, pp. 328-332.
Greenberg, R. (2005) Europa: The Ocean Moon: Search for an Alien Biosphere, Springer Praxis Books.
Greenberg, R. (2008) Unmasking Europa: the search for life on Jupiter’s ocean moon. Copernicus Books, 277 pp.
Johnson, T. V. (1995) The Galileo Mission. Scientific American. December, p. 35.
Pappalardo, R.T., McKinnon, W.B. and Khurana, K.K. (eds.) (2009) Europa. Tucson, Univ. Arizona Press. 727 pp.
Schopf, J. W. (2001). Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth’s Earliest Fossils. Princeton University Press, 336 pp.
References
Anderson, J. D., Lau, E. L., Sjogren, W. L., Schubert, G. and Moore, W. B. (1997) Europa’s Differentiated Internal Structure: Inferences from Two Galileo Encounters. Science 276, 1236 - 1239_.
Blanc, M. et al and LAPLACE Team Members (2009) LAPLACE: a mission to Europa and the Jupiter System for ESA’s Cosmic Vision Programme, Experimental Astronomy, 23, Issue 3, 849-892. The LAPLACE Team Members are in: http://www.ictp.it/~chelaf/ss164.html
Bland, M. T., Showman, A. P. and Tobie, G. (2009) The orbital–thermal evolution and global expansion of Ganymede. Icarus 200, 207-221.
Bortman, H. (2010) Antarctic diving robot practices for Europa. http://www.ictp.it/~chelaf/Antarctic_robot_for_Europa.pdf
Brunner, B. and Bernasconi, S.M. (2005) A revised isotope fractionation model for dissimilatory sulfate reduction in sulfate reducing bacteria. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 69, 4759–4771.
Canfield, D.E. (2006) Gas with an ancient history. Nature 440, 426-427.
Canfield, D., Thamdrup, B. (1994) The production of 34S-depleted sulfide during bacterial disproportionation of elemental sulfur. Science 266, 1973-1975.
Carlson, R. W., Johnson, R. E. and Anderson, M. S. (1999) Sulfuric Acid on Europa and the Radiolytic Sulfur Cycle. Science 286, 97-99.
Carr, M. H., Belton, M. J. S., Chapman, C. R., Davies, M. E., Geissler, P., Greenberg, R., McEwen, A S., Tufts, B. R., Greely, R., Sullivan, R., Head, J. W., Pappalardo, R. T., Klaasen, K. P., Johnson, T. V., Kaufman, J., Senske, D., Moore, J., Neukum, G., Schubert, G., Burns, J. A., Thomas, P. and Veverka, J. (1998) Evidence for a subsurface ocean in Europa, Nature 391, 363-365.
Chela-Flores, J. (1996) Habitability of Europa: possible degree of evolution of Europan biota, Europa Ocean Conference, San Juan Capistrano Research Institute, San Juan Capistrano, California, USA, 12-14 November, 1996. p.21.
Chela-Flores, J. (2006) The sulphur dilemma: Are there biosignatures on Europa’s icy and patchy surface? Int. J. Astrobiol. 5, 17-22.
Chela-Flores, J. (2010) Instrumentation for the search of habitable ecosystems in the future exploration of Europa and Ganymede. Int. J. Astrobiol. 9, 101-108. http://www.ictp.it/~chelaf/jcf_IJA_2010.pdf
Chela-Flores, J., Bhattacherjee, A. B., Dudeja, S., Kumar, N. and Seckbach, J. (2009) Can the biogenicity of Europa’s surfical sulfur be tested simultaneously with penetrators and ion traps? Geophysical Research Abstracts 11, EGU2009-0, 2009, EGU General Assembly 2009. Vienna, 22 April.
Chela-Flores, J. and Kumar, N. (2008) Returning to Europa: Can traces of surficial life be detected? International Journal of Astrobiology 7, 263-269. http://www.ictp.it/~chelaf/JCFKumar.pdf
Cooper J. F., Johnson R. E., Mauk B. H., Garrett H. B., Gehrels N. (2001) Energetic Ion and Electron Irradiation of the Icy Galilean Satellites. Icarus 149, 133-159.
Detmers, J., Brüchert, V., Habich, K. S and Kuever, J. (2001) Diversity of Sulfur Isotope Fractionations by Sulfate-Reducing Prokaryotes. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 67, 888-894.
Fagents, S. A. (2003) Considerations for the Effusive Cryovolcanism on Europa: The Post-Galileo Perspective. J. Geophys. Res. 108, No. E12, 5139.
Fanale, F. P., Granahan, J. C., McCord, T. B., Hansen, G.,.Hibbitts, C. A., Carlson, R., Matson, D., Ocampo, A., Kamp, L., Smythe, W., Leader, F., Mehlman, R., Greeley, R., Sullivan, R., Geissler, P., Barth, C., Hendrix, A., Clark, B., Helfenstein, P., Veverka, J., Belton, M., Becker, K., Becker, T., and the Galileo instrumentation teams NIMS, SSI, UVS (1999) Galileo’s Multiinstrument Spectral View of Europa’s Surface Composition. Icarus 139, 179-188.
Gowen, R. A., Smith, A., Fortes, A.D., Barber, S., Brown, P., Church, P., Collinson, G., Coates, A. J., Collins, G., Crawford, I. A., Dehant, V., Chela-Flores, J., Griffiths, A. D., Grindrod, P. M., Gurvits, L.I., Hagermann, A, Hussmann, H., Jaumann, R., Jones, A.P., Joy. A. Sephton, K.H., Karatekin, O., Miljkovic, K., Palomba, E., Pike, W.T., Prieto-Ballesteros, O., Raulin, F., Sephton, M. A., Sheridan, M S., Sims, M., Storrie-Lombardi, M. C., Ambrosi, R., Fielding, J, Fraser, G., Gao, Y., Jones, G. H., Kargl, Karl, W. J., Macagnano, A., Mukherjee, A., Muller, J. P., Phipps, A., Pullan, D., Richter, L., Sohl, F., Snape, J., Sykes, J., Wells, N. (2010) Penetrators for in situ sub-surface investigations of Europa. Advances in Space Research, doi: 10.1016/j.asr.2010.06.026.
Grasset, O., Lebreton, J.-,P., Blanc, M., Dougherty, M., Erd, C, Greeley, R., Pappalardo, B. and the Joint Science Definition Team (2009) The Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter as part of the ESA/NASA Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM). EPSC Abstracts 4, EPSC2009-784, European Planetary Science Congress.
Greely, R. and Batson, R. (1997) The NASA Atlas of the Solar System, Cambridge University Press, London.
Greenberg, R. (2005) Europa, the Ocean Moon. Springer, Berlin.
Greenberg, R. (2010) Transport rates of radiolytic substances into Europa’s ocean: implications for the Potential Origin and Maintenance of Life. Astrobiology 10, 275-83.
Grice, K., Cao, C., Love, G. D., Böttcher, M. E., Twitchett, R. J., Grosjean, E., Summons, R. E., Turgeon, S. C., Dunning, W. and Y. Jin (2005) Photic Zone Euxinia During the Permian-Triassic Superanoxic Event. Science 307, 706 – 709.
Grundy, W. M., Buratti, B. J., Cheng, A. F., Emery, J. P., Lunsford, A., McKinnon, W. B., Moore, J. M., Newman, S. F., Olkin, C. B., Reuter, D. C., Schenk, P. M., Spencer, J. R.; Stern, S. A., Throop, H. B., Weaver, H. A. (2007) New Horizons Mapping of Europa and Ganymede. Science 318, 234-236.
Hand, K. P., Chyba, C.F., J.C. Priscu, Carlson, R.W. and K.H. Nealson (2009) Astrobiology and the Potential for Life on Europa. In: Europa. R. Pappalardo, W. McKinnon and K. Khurana (eds.). Univ. of AZ Press, pp. 589-629.
Hoefs, J. (2009) Stable Isotope Geochemistry. 6th ed., Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 76-77.
Hoppa, G. V., Tufts, B. R., Greenberg, R. and Geissler. P. E. (1999) Formation of cycloidal features on Europa. Science 285, 1899–1902.
Horneck, G. (1995) Exobiology, the study of the origin, evolution and distribution of life within the context of cosmic evolution: a review, Planet. Space Sci. 43, 189-217.
Horvath, J., Carsey, F., Cutts, J. Jones, J. Johnson, E., Landry, B., Lane, L., Lynch, G., Chela-Flores, J., Jeng, T-W. and Bradley, A. (1997) Searching for ice and ocean biogenic activity on Europa and Earth. Instruments, Methods and Missions for Investigation of Extraterrestrial Microorganisms, (R.B. Hoover, ed.), Proc. SPIE 3111, pp. 490-500. http://www.ictp.it/~chelaf/searching_for_ice.html
Jannasch, H. W. and Mottl, M. J. (1985) Geomicrobiology of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents. Science 229, 717 - 725_.
Kivelson, M. G., Khurana, K. K., Joy, S., Russell, C. T., Southwood, D. J., Walker, R. J. and Polanskey, C. (1997) Europa’s Magnetic Signature: Report from Galileo’s Pass on 19 December 1996. Science 276, 1239 – 1241.
McCord, T. B., Hansen, G. B., Clark, R. N., Martin, P. D., Hibbitts, C. A., Fanale, F. P., Granahan, J. C., Segura, N. M., Matson, D. L., Johnson, T. V., Carlson, R. W., Smythe, W. D., Danielson, G. E. and the NIMS team (1998) Non-water-ice constituents in the surface material of the icy Galilean satellites from the Galileo near-infrared mapping spectrometer investigation, Jour. Geophys. Res. 103(E4), pp. 8603-8626.
McCready, R. G. L. (1975) Sulphur isotope fractionation by Desulvovibrio and Desulfotomaculum species. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 39,1395-1401.
McEwen, A. S. (1986) Exogenic and endogenic albedo and color patterns on Europa. J. Geophys. Res. 91, 8077–8097.
Oró, J. Squyres, S. W., Reynolds, R. T., and Mills, T. M. (1992) Europa: Prospects for an ocean and exobiological implications, in G. C. Carle, D. E. Schwartz and J. L. Huntington (eds.), Exobiology in Solar System Exploration, NASA SP 512, pp. 103-125.
Rees, C.E. (1973) A steady-state model for sulphur isotope fractionation in bacterial reduction processes. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 37,1141–1162.
Rollinson, H. (2007) Early Earth Systems. Blackwell, London. p. 225.
Shock, E. L. (2001) Geochemical habitats in hydrothermal systems, in The First Steps of Life in the Universe. Eds. J. Chela-Flores, T. Owen and F. Raulin. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 179-185
Singer, E. (2003) Vital clues from Europa. New Scientist magazine Issue N. 2414, 22-23. http://www.ictp.it/~chelaf/VitalClues.pdf
Ulamec, S., Biele, J., Funke, O., Engelhardt, M. (2007) Access to glacial and subglacial environments in the solar system by melting probe technology. Rev. Environ. Sci. Biotechnology 6, 71-94.
Weiss, P. (2010) System Study and Design of a Multi-Probe Mission for Planetary In-Situ Analysis. PH. D. Thesis The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 178 pp.
Weiss, P., Yung, K. L., Ng., T. C., Komle, N., Kargl., G. and Kaufmann, E. (2008) Study of a melting drill head for the exploration of subsurface planetary ice layers. Planetary and Space Science 56, 1280-1292.
Whitman, W.B., Coleman, D.C., and Wiebe, W. J. (1998) Prokaryotes: The unseen majority. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95, 6598-6583.
Wortmann, U.G., Bernasconi, S.M. and Bottcher, M.E. (2001) Hypersulfidic deep biosphere indicates extreme sulfur isotope fractionation during single-step microbial sulfate reduction. Geology 29, 647–650.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chela-Flores, J. (2011). On the possibility of biological evolution on the moons of Jupiter. In: The Science of Astrobiology. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1627-8_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1627-8_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-1626-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1627-8
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)