Post by Astronomy God on May 8, 2024 0:42:14 GMT
The search for life beyond Earth has driven seekers to scout all sorts of potential habitats — not just on the growing list of known Earth-like exoplanets, but in other places within our own solar system.
The first choice that comes to mind is likely Mars, which some scientists believe still holds oases of liquid water beneath its barren surface, Not long ago, the detection of phosphine, a possible indicator of biological decay, in the atmosphere of Venus set off debate about whether life could exist in that hellishly hot planet's clouds. And for decades now, scientists have pondered whether life could exist in the skies of gas giants like Jupiter.
But one locale that few scientists have considered for life is the set of rings that crown Jupiter, outside the gas giant's atmosphere. These rings, like those that circle all of our solar system's gas giants, are actually belts composed mainly of water-ice particles, some as small as grains of sand, others as large as mountains. Might life exist there?
The first choice that comes to mind is likely Mars, which some scientists believe still holds oases of liquid water beneath its barren surface, Not long ago, the detection of phosphine, a possible indicator of biological decay, in the atmosphere of Venus set off debate about whether life could exist in that hellishly hot planet's clouds. And for decades now, scientists have pondered whether life could exist in the skies of gas giants like Jupiter.
But one locale that few scientists have considered for life is the set of rings that crown Jupiter, outside the gas giant's atmosphere. These rings, like those that circle all of our solar system's gas giants, are actually belts composed mainly of water-ice particles, some as small as grains of sand, others as large as mountains. Might life exist there?