Europa or Mars: Which will be the New Checkpoint of Human Civilization?

Author Name(s):

Sandesh Ghimire, Binod Adhikari, Ajay Kumar Karn

 

Abstract:

The study of Europa, as well as other Galilean moons of Jupiter, was first done by Galileo Galilei himself. After Galileo discovered Europa on 8th January 1610 (possibly by Simon Marius too, independently), this heavenly body has been the hot topic of discussion. Galileo Orbiter orbited around Europa between 1995-2003 and it found many strong pieces of evidence of the presence of liquid water beneath the icy surface of Europa. Similarly, Hubble Space Telescope also found the water plumes coming out from Europa from the data collected on January 26, 2014. As per Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Wherever there is liquid water on earth, there is life, even on the Dead Sea. So, Europa might also sustain life on it despite it lies outside of the gold lock zone”. The surface of Europa is young, with a resurfacing age of just 30-70 million years oldand it is rich in ridges. Europa is tidally locked to Jupiter but those ridges are present on the overall surface of Europa which provides strong support in evidence of the presence of water on Europa. With the presence of liquid water and its magnetic field, it also stands out as an extraordinary candidate (other than Mars) in which we should start conducting our interplanetary missions. Mars on other hands is close to us, and river beds, sedimentary deposits indicating the presence of lakes on its past and also with the presence of ice on its Utopia Planitia region, Mars is one of the best candidates for our interplanetary mission. In this paper, we will discuss both the heavenly bodies and finally present our hypothesis.               

Keywords:

Europa, Mars, Goldilock zone, Tidal locking.

Please cite this article as:

Sandesh Ghimire, Binod Adhikari, Ajay Kumar Karn (2021). Europa or ars: Which will be the new Checkpoint of Human Civilization?. International Journal of Recent Research and Applied Studies, 8, 1(2), 5-20.


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