• Question: which planet/moon do you think is most likely to have life on it other than earth

    Asked by mboromax to Col Op, Elie, Floris, Jenn, RocketRich on 11 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Elie Allouis

      Elie Allouis answered on 11 Mar 2016:


      That’s a good question!
      Usually if you have liquid water somewhere, you are more likely to find life than places that are too dry.
      – Mars – we know it had water and may have had some form of life if the conditions were right before it became a ball of dust 😉 – we are sending the ExoMars rover soon with plenty of instruments to find out more
      – Titan – One of Saturn’s moon – Has water ice and plenty of chemicals that could be compatible with life, although it is pretty cold..
      – Enceladus, another moon around Saturn – a real snowball of water ice, but with giant geyser (like water volcano)… so another great place to look for life…
      – finally….Europa – Jupiter’s Moon – well, that’s an interesting place! Like a frozen ocean with plenty of water. Some mission concepts are looking into sending robotic submarines to find out, or even missile-like penetrators to go deep n the ice. We have been working on this concept a few years ago and did some really cool testing as shown here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23281423

Comments