Key Takeaways
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Earth’s deep-sea hydrothermal vents provide a model for understanding how life could exist on Europa.
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Holden’s team is studying how vent microbes generate energy using hydrogenases to predict what alien biochemistry might look like.
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NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, paired with this research, may soon offer answers to whether we are alone in the universe.
While many imagine alien life as humanoid beings with big heads and glowing eyes, the truth might be much smaller—and stranger. Microbes, some of the oldest and most resilient forms of life on Earth, are now at the center of a search for life beyond our planet. One place scientists are looking is deep under the frozen shell of Jupiter’s moon, Europa.
James Holden, a microbiologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is leading a team to study Earth’s own extreme environments to understand what life might look like elsewhere. NASA has awarded him $621,000 to investigate deep-sea microbes over the next three years. His work focuses on the dark, pressurized world beneath our oceans, where boiling hot fluids spew from the seafloor. These places, called hydrothermal vents, may hold secrets to life not just on Earth—but on other worlds.
Holden’s lab recreates the harsh conditions found near these vents. No sunlight, no oxygen, and temperatures that would destroy most forms of life. Yet, microbes thrive here, feeding on the gases and minerals that pour from the Earth’s crust. “I’ve been looking at deep-sea volcanoes since 1988,” Holden says. “We use submarines—sometimes human-occupied, sometimes robotic—to dive a mile below the surface and bring the samples ashore and back into my lab at UMass Amherst.”
His research may help scientists understand if Europa’s underground ocean—locked beneath a thick crust of ice—could support similar forms of life.
Europa’s Hidden Ocean
Europa, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter, is one of the most promising places in our solar system to look for life. Though it appears frozen from the outside, observations suggest that beneath its icy surface lies a vast ocean of salty liquid water. NASA estimates that the crust may be 15 to 25 kilometers thick, with a liquid ocean stretching another 150 kilometers below.
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What makes Europa so compelling is not just the water—it’s what lies beneath that ocean. Many scientists believe Europa has a molten core that could generate heat. If true, that heat might create hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, similar to the ones found on Earth. These vents would supply energy and vital minerals—key ingredients for life.
“We think, based on our own planet, that Europa may have conditions that can support life,” Holden says. His experience studying hydrothermal microbes here on Earth offers a model for what might exist in Europa’s dark ocean.
NASA launched the Europa Clipper mission in October 2024. Over the next five years, it will gather detailed data about the moon’s ice, ocean, and surface chemistry. But while the spacecraft flies above, Holden and his team are looking deep below—to Earth’s seafloor—to help decode what life on Europa might resemble.
Microbes Built for Extremes
The microbes that live near hydrothermal vents on Earth are not ordinary organisms. They survive without sunlight, using a process called chemosynthesis. Instead of using light to make food, they break down chemicals like hydrogen using specialized enzymes known as hydrogenases.
“There are different kinds of hydrogenases,” Holden explains. “They work in different ways and may have different functions in different kinds of cells.”
Depending on which type of hydrogenase they use, microbes can look and behave quite differently. The elements around them—such as iron, sulfur, and carbon—also affect how they make energy. These elements interact with hydrogen, taking its electrons and helping power the cells.
Holden’s team is trying to figure out how these chemical processes influence microbial life. This could reveal what kinds of life-forms might exist in Europa’s oceans. “Our research will be to determine how the different chemical processes contribute to an organism’s physiology,” he says.
Europa’s ocean likely has a very different chemical makeup than Earth’s. That means any life there would have to use unique strategies to survive. “Different chemistries could create very different kinds of microbes,” Holden says. The work being done in his lab aims to map out what those differences might be.
Oceans Below and Above
Studying Earth’s oceans helps researchers prepare for discoveries in space. If life is found on Europa, it would be one of the most important scientific breakthroughs in history. It would show that life can arise in more than one place, even under extreme conditions.
“We have long had a basic interest in knowing if there is life beyond our planet and how that life would function,” Holden reflects. “It’s exciting to think that the answer to the secret might be here on our own planet.”
His work brings together biology, chemistry, and planetary science. It links what we know about our own deep seas to what we hope to discover on distant moons. As the Europa Clipper travels through space, Holden’s team will keep exploring the alien-like world beneath our oceans.
Their combined efforts could one day reveal that Earth is not alone—and that life, even if microscopic, might be more common in the universe than we ever thought.
Details of NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission
NASA’s Europa Clipper, launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on October 14, 2024, from Kennedy Space Center, marks a historic leap toward understanding whether Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons, could support life. The mission follows a meticulously planned 5½‑year trajectory spanning 1.8 billion miles, highlighted by gravity assists at Mars (March 1, 2025) and Earth (December 3, 2026), with arrival at Jupiter slated for April 2030.
Once in Jupiter’s domain, Europa Clipper will begin a four‑year science campaign, executing 49 close flybys of Europa at altitudes between 16 and 100 kilometers. Instead of orbiting Europa directly—which would expose it to intense radiation—the spacecraft will loop around Jupiter, returning to Europa frequently to collect data while minimizing radiation exposure.
Its science suite includes nine instruments: ice-penetrating radar, spectrometers (MISE, MASPEX), magnetometer (ECM), thermal imager (E‑THEMIS), ultraviolet spectrograph (Europa‑UVS), plasma sensor (PIMS), dust analyzer (SUDA), high-resolution cameras (EIS), and gravity/radio science via its high-gain antenna.
The mission’s primary objectives are to characterize Europa’s ice shell and subsurface ocean, analyze its geology, search for plumes or ongoing activity, and assess the moon’s habitability—namely, whether liquid water, chemical building blocks, and energy sources exist to support life. Instruments like REASON (radar) and ECM will probe ice thickness, ocean depth, and salinity, while MASPEX and SUDA will sample surface and plume materials. E‑THEMIS seeks thermal anomalies, hinting at active regions.
Europa Clipper also carries a symbolic “Message in a Bottle”—a tantalum plate etched with Ada Limón’s poem In Praise of Mystery, waveforms of the word “water” in 103 languages, and over 2.6 million names from around the world—underscoring humanity’s collective curiosity about life beyond Earth.
If it concludes without an extended mission, the spacecraft is planned to be deorbited into Ganymede (or possibly Callisto) around September 3, 2034 to avoid contaminating Europa. However, given its success, NASA may extend the mission, potentially uncovering even more about Jupiter’s ocean worlds.
With its groundbreaking investigations, Europa Clipper promises to reshape our understanding of habitable environments in our solar system—and perhaps beyond.
Note: The article above provided above by The Brighter Side of News.
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