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HIDDEN OCEANS ON ICY WORLDS
The thick icy crust of Europa, a moon of Jupiter, hides a deep ocean. Scientists hope to penetrate the crust with a powerful "melt probe" and reach the subsurface ocean. Underwater, a "hydrobot" would collect information and send it to Earth.
What type of life do we expect beyond our planet? Most of Earth's life is microbial and is found in our oceans. Several moons in our Solar System contain deep oceans and have strong potential for habitability. Life could exist in these subsurface oceans, perhaps in an environment similar to Earth's deep-ocean hydrothermal vents or the Antarctic subglacial Lake Vostok. |