NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed homemade carbon dioxide on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, raising the possibility that the frigid waterworld could host life.

The new detection by JWST is intriguing because the carbon dioxide does not seem to have been carried by a meteorite or asteroid, and it appears in a geologically young region of the moon called Tara Regio, suggesting the gas may have formed within the moon itself.

  • qooqie@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Oh boy hope they have some gas there 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

    In all honesty, I wonder if it’s just primitive bacteria or not primitive I suppose.

    • Opafi@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Do you have any idea just how absolutely groundbreaking primitive bacteria on other celestial bodies would be?

      • t_jpeg@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Even more groundbreaking if their cell structure and genetic material structure is similar to the bacteria on Earth.

        • Spzi@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Or even if it is comletely different. A second sample of how life can look like would be groundbreaking.

          • t_jpeg@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You right. I was more thinking a seeding hypothesis (life on other planets coming from a single source)