In recent years, the search for extraterrestrial life has taken on new urgency. With the advent of powerful telescopes and new techniques for detecting very faint signals, astronomers are now able to detect planets around other stars and to study their atmospheres in detail. One of the most promising places to look for signs of life is on icy worlds like Europa, a moon of Jupiter.
The Cosmic Ice Lab at NASA’s Ames Research Center is working to understand the habitability of these environments and to develop technologies that will enable future missions to search for life on them. The lab’s work includes studies of how ice behaves under the extreme conditions found on these worlds, as well as experiments with organisms that could potentially survive in such an environment.
The lab is also working on developing new instruments that can be used to detect biosignatures – molecules that would be indicative of life – in the atmospheres of distant planets. Such instruments could one day be used on board a spacecraft destined for one of these worlds, providing scientists with vital information about whether or not they are home to alien lifeforms.