Life May Be Hiding Beneath Jupiter Moon Crust

Life May Be Hiding Beneath Jupiter Moon Crust

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Extraterrestrial life in the solar system may be hiding beneath the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa, safe from blasts of radiation, U.S. researchers say.

The frozen moon is subject to constant and significant blasts of radiation from Jupiter’s magnetic field that could annihilate life at shallow depths, so scientists are conducting an experiment to determine how deep life must lie beneath the crust to survive. Jupiter’s magnetosphere bombards the moon with high-energy electrons in the megaelectron volt range, so scientists say they want to know how deep into ice such radiation can penetrate.