NASA and others aim to find out, with planned robotic missions to explore the moon's frigid oceans, and a new study helps pave the way for those missions.
Researchers from the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley, have found that the habitat for possible extraterrestrial life on the moon is much larger than thought, thanks to the amount of liquid that could be present.
Baptiste Journaux, acting assistant professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington, said, "The more stable a fluid is, the more promising its habitability is."
"Our findings suggest that cold, salty, high-pressure liquids found in the deep oceans of other planetary moons can remain liquid at temperatures much lower than they would at lower pressures.
"This expands the range of possible habitats on icy moons, allowing us to determine where we should look for biosignatures or signs of life."
The icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, including Io, Io, and Titan, are prime candidates for the presence of extraterrestrial life in our solar system.
These ice-covered moons are thought to harbor vast liquid oceans tens of times the size of Earth's oceans.
The oceans on these moons may contain various types of salt and are expected to range in depth from about 100 miles on Io to more than 400 miles on Titan.
We know that water supports life, but the main part of the oceans on these moons may be below 0?C, with pressures higher than any on Earth.
We need to know how cold the oceans are before they freeze completely, including in their deepest abyss.
This study focuses on *** crystals, the lowest temperature at which a salt solution remains liquid before it completely freezes.
The experiments used equipment from the University of California, Berkeley, originally designed for future medical applications and food cryopreservation of organs.
However, in this study, the authors used it to simulate conditions that might exist on moons of other planets.
Journaux, a planetary scientist and expert in the physics of water and minerals, worked with engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, to test solutions of five different salts at 3,000 times atmospheric pressure, or 300 megapascals, roughly three times the pressure of Earth's deepest trench.
Understanding the minimum temperature at which salty water remains liquid under high pressure is integral to understanding how extraterrestrial life could survive and thrive in the deep waters of these icy ocean worlds.
Journaux recently began working with NASA's Dragonfly mission team, which will launch a rotorcraft to Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in 2027.
Nasa will also lead the Io Express mission in 2024, exploring Io, one of the many moons that orbit Jupiter.
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency will launch its JUICE spacecraft, the Jupiter Ice Satellite Explorer, in 2023 to explore Jupiter's three largest moons: Io, Io, and Io.