Signs of Life on Jupiter's Moon

^PM-Europa,0236
^Researchers: Lack of energy makes life on Jupiter's moon unlikely
LOS ANGELES (AP) Jupiter's moon Europa probably could not support life because oceans beneath the frozen surface could barely support single-cell organisms let alone complex species, researchers say.

However, some scientists had suggested that oceans exist beneath the frozen surface on Europa, boosting theories that life could develop on Jupiter's fourth-largest moon. This theory was supported by data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

There is a great deal of debate on the subject and there are skeptics. According to an issue of today's journal, Science, a layer of ice 6 miles deep blocks the sun's life sustaining energy from the water creating doubt that any living organism can survive in such conditions.

According to Joseph Kirschvink, one of the authors and professors of geobiology at the California Institute of Technology, one is not likely to find fish swimming in Europa's Ocean. " We hate to throw cold water on it... but Jupiter's basically a smothered planet," Kirschvink said Thursday.

Researchers claim that the only possibility of life on Jupiter's Europa is the existince of simple organisms that can sustain themselves on energy sources such as rust and oxidized iron. Organisms could live in the oceans heated by the strain of Jupiter's gravitational pull, researchers had said. "But we are talking about very simple organisms that can live on these energy sources," said Eric Gaidos, the paper's lead author and geobiologist at Caltech.

(Copyright 1999 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP