Have you ever wondered if there is life beyond Earth but haven’t found one except our Universe? But actually, how to determine the search of life beyond your home Universe? According to the scientists, they suggest that there are three core ingredients which are determined to make life easier and livable. Additionally, life requires time to develop, so one should explore worlds where sufficient time has passed for life to potentially emerge.

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa: Ingredients of living

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa may contain these crucial elements and is as old as Earth. NASA’ s Europa Clipper spacecraft is the one which helps to conduct an in-depth study of Europa and assess whether its subsurface ocean can support life. Understanding Europa’s habitability will enhance the knowledge of the potential for life beyond our planet and guide our ongoing search.

Water

Liquid water is the primary ingredient for life, and Europa is abundant in it. Scientists believe that beneath Europa’s icy crust lies a salty ocean containing twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined. Water is vital as it dissolves nutrients for organisms, facilitates chemical transport within cells, supports metabolic processes, and helps eliminate waste. There’s strong evidence of a rocky seafloor beneath Europa’s ocean, and hydrothermal activity could provide chemical nutrients that support living organisms.
Europa appears as a half-sphere against the dark backdrop of space. Its surface is off-white with a slight bluish tint, featuring long, dark rusty lines. On the left side, these lines are tightly packed, while on the right side, they extend deeper and curve across the moon’s surface. The image reveals more of the moon at the bottom, fading into darkness.
This intriguing surface of Europa is showcased in a reprocessed colour image derived from photographs taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. The best evidence for an ocean beneath Europa was gathered by the Galileo spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Although Europa lacks its own magnetic field, the Galileo spacecraft detected a magnetic signature during 12 close flybys, likely caused by a global ocean of salty water beneath its surface.
Europa’s bright, icy exterior is unlike any found on Earth. It is the smoothest body in the solar system, with few mountains or deep basins. The surface is crisscrossed by ridges and grooves, and many features align with long, dark reddish streaks stretching over 600 miles (1,000 kilometres). Additionally, domes, pits, and clusters of icy blocks suggest warm ice may be rising from below.
Images of Europa’s surface reveal patterns of cracks and ridges indicative of a global ocean capable of producing large tides that deform the surface. The largest impact structures on Europa show concentric patterns, suggesting that impacts may have breached the icy shell into liquid water. Moreover, the moon’s surface geology indicates that warm ice has likely risen from the ice-ocean interface.
Models propose that Europa’s icy shell is stretched and released by Jupiter’s gravitational pull as the moon orbits the giant planet. This phenomenon, known as tidal flexing, generates internal heat within Europa, possibly maintaining the liquid ocean beneath its surface.

Chemistry

In addition to water, life as we know it requires specific chemical elements—such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulphur—that are fundamental building blocks. These elements are abundant in the universe and constitute 98% of living matter on Earth, combining to form organic molecules essential for life. Scientists believe these elements were incorporated into Europa during its formation and were later augmented by organic materials from colliding asteroids and comets.
While all life on Earth is composed of organic molecules, simply discovering these molecules does not necessarily indicate the presence of life. They can form through non-biological processes as well. However, finding such molecules on Europa would help determine whether the essential ingredients for life ever existed on the icy moon.
Some of these vital chemical elements may currently reside within Europa’s icy shell, while others could originate from its core and the weathering of the moon’s rocky interior. Tidal flexing may facilitate the cycling of water and nutrients among the moon’s rocky interior, icy shell, and ocean, creating a chemically rich aquatic environment conducive to life.

Energy

The third vital ingredient for life is energy, which all living organisms require. On Earth, most energy comes from the Sun, with plants harnessing sunlight through photosynthesis to produce energy. This energy is then transferred to humans, animals, and other organisms when they consume plants. However, any potential life forms on Europa would likely depend on chemical reactions rather than photosynthesis, as they would exist beneath the ice, far from sunlight.
Europa’s surface is bombarded by radiation from Jupiter, making it inhospitable for surface life. Yet, this radiation might create energy sources for life within the ocean below. The radiation can break down water molecules (H₂O) in Europa’s thin atmosphere, allowing hydrogen to escape while much of the oxygen remains, potentially bonding with other elements. This reactive oxygen could facilitate chemical reactions that release energy, possibly supporting microbial life if it reaches the ocean.
Additionally, Europa’s ocean is likely in direct contact with warm rock at its seafloor. As Europa orbits Jupiter, its interior flexes, generating heat (similar to how bending a paperclip produces heat). The more the moon flexes, the more heat is generated, which can provide hydrogen and other chemicals to the ocean.
If the rocky ocean floor is heated by tidal flexing, it could supply energy in the form of chemical nutrients through hydrothermal vents. This process is analogous to what occurs in hydrothermal vents on Earth, first discovered in 1977 on the Galapagos Rift in the Pacific Ocean. These discoveries revolutionised our understanding of life on Earth and are considered among the most significant breakthroughs in ocean science.
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Earth will get a second moon for about two months this year when a small asteroid begins to orbit our planet. The asteroid was discovered in August and is set to become a mini-moon, revolving around Earth in a horseshoe shape from Sept. 29 to Nov. 25.

Researchers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, an asteroid monitoring system funded by NASA, spotted the asteroid using an instrument in Sutherland, South Africa and labeled it 2024 PT5. 

Scientists from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid have tracked the asteroid’s orbit for 21 days and determined its future path. 2024 PT5 is from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which orbits the sun, according to their study published in Research Notes of the AAs. 

But Earth’s gravitational pull will draw 2024 PT5 towards it and, much like our moon, it will orbit our planet — but only for 56.6 days.

While other non-Earth objects, or NEOs, have entered Earth’s orbit before, some don’t complete full revolutions of Earth. Some, however, do and become so-called mini-moons.

An asteroid called 2020 CD3 was bound to Earth for several years before leaving the planet’s orbit in 2020 and another called 2022 NX1 became a mini-moon of Earth in 1981 and 2022 and will return again in 2051. 

2024 PT5, which is larger than some of the other mini-moons, will also return to Earth’s orbit — in 2055. 

Earth’s gravity will pull it into its orbit and the asteroid will have negative geocentric energy, meaning it can’t escape Earth’s gravitational pull. It will orbit around Earth in a horseshoe shape before reverting back to heliocentric energy, meaning it will rotate around the sun again, like the other planets and NEOs in our galaxy.

Even after it leaves orbit, it will stay near Earth for a few months, making its closest approach on Jan. 9, 2025. Soon after, it will leave Earth’s neighborhood until its path puts it back into our orbit in about 30 years.

The study’s lead author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com the mini-moon will be too small to see with amateur telescopes or binoculars but professional astronomers with stronger tools will be able to spot it.

CBS News has reached out to Marcos for further information and is awaiting response.

You may have heard that the earth vibrated for nine days in 2023 and the event puzzled scientists across the globe. If you want to know about it, then you are at the right place. In September 2023, a melting glacier in eastern Greenland triggered a massive landslide, leading to a 650-foot-high mega-tsunami. This occurred in Dickson Fjord, a remote part of Greenland, and was caused by the destabilization of a glacier at the base of a 4,000-foot mountain. Due to climate change and rising global temperatures, the glaciers had been gradually thinning. When the glacier finally gave way, it sent a colossal amount of debris tumbling into the fjord, displacing enough material to fill around 10,000 Olympic-sized pools.

Mysterious Global Vibrations Detected

Following this event, scientists noticed an unusual global phenomenon: a persistent ground vibration lasting nine days. Unlike earthquake tremors, which are usually brief and intense, this signal was a continuous, low-frequency hum. Seismologists from across the globe were puzzled by the unfamiliar pattern, initially believing it to be a glitch in their equipment.

Collaborative Global Investigation

The unexpected signal sparked a year-long investigation by a group of 68 scientists from 15 different countries. By analyzing seismic readings, satellite data, and computer simulations, they identified the cause. The vibrations were the result of a “seiche,” a rhythmic wave motion that occurs when water sloshes back and forth within an enclosed space. The mega-tsunami’s waves became trapped in the narrow fjord, causing the water to oscillate for over a week. This movement generated seismic energy that travelled across the globe.

Warning of Climate Change Impact

The findings highlight the ongoing and unpredictable impacts of climate change in the Arctic. The melting glacier that triggered the landslide is a reminder that the region is entering “uncharted waters” as global temperatures continue to rise, with severe consequences for ecosystems and human populations alike.

KOLKATA: A study led by a senior professor of IIT-Kharagpur, in collaboration with international researchers, has dismissed previous claims of a ‘severe ozone hole’ in the tropical stratosphere after analysing data of 42 years. The study, titled ‘No Severe Ozone Depletion in the Tropical Stratosphere in Recent Decades,’ reassures that there is no significant ozone depletion in the tropics and no associated health threat, a statement from IIT Kharagpur said.

Led by Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath from the Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere, and Land Sciences (CORAL) at IIT Kharagpur, his team analysed ground-based ozonesonde (instrument to measure ozone levels) and satellite ozone measurements to examine the depletion in the tropics during the past five decades (1980–2022). Their findings contradict earlier research that suggested a potential ozone hole could impact the health of about half of the world’s tropical population.

“The previous research suggested that such an ozone hole could potentially impact the health of about half of the world’s population residing in tropical regions. But there was no observational evidence,” the statement said. The researchers found that the amount of column ozone in the tropics is relatively small compared to high and mid-latitudes.

There is no observational evidence supporting severe stratospheric ozone depletion in the tropics. The study indicates that current understanding and data do not support the possibility of an ozone hole forming outside Antarctica. Stratospheric ozone is an important constituent of the atmosphere. Significant changes in its concentrations have great consequences for the environment, ecosystems and public health.

The study utilised extensive ground-based, satellite, and re-analysis data, showing no robust evidence for a significant ozone hole in the tropics. Average ozone levels in these regions remain well above the critical threshold used to define an ozone hole, the statement said. “The amount of column ozone in the tropics is relatively small compared to high and mid-latitudes. In addition, the tropical total ozone trend is very small as estimated for the period 1998-2022. No observational evidence is found regarding the indications of severe stratospheric ozone depletion in the tropics”, the statement added.

“Also, the current understanding and observational evidence do not provide any support for the possibility of an ozone hole occurring outside Antarctica these days,” it said. According to the statement, earlier studies that reported an ozone hole relied on inadequate data, primarily from the surface to 11 km altitude, which is insufficient to accurately assess ozone levels at the critical 15–20 km altitude.

The IIT-led research attributed any observed decrease in tropical ozone levels to atmospheric dynamics rather than chemical depletion. “In contrast to a previous claim, our study finds that there is no ozone hole in the tropics and therefore, no health threat associated with that. Also, it is very unlikely to have an ozone hole in the tropics with respect to the current halogen levels. The average ozone values are always about 260 DU in the tropics, which is well above the ozone hole criterion of 220 DU,” Kuttippurath said.

He further noted that any slight decrease observed in tropical ozone levels in recent decades is due to changes in atmospheric dynamics rather than chemical processes. Ozone holes, as known, are confined to Antarctica due to unique conditions such as extreme cold temperatures, he said.