Jupiter's Moon Europa Has Enough Oxygen For Life

***SOUL-DRIFTER*** · 10-16-2009, 07:52 PM

I have no doubt there exists something for life in the ocean of water beneath the ice there.

A model of Europa's interior, including a global ocean. If a 100 kilometer-deep ocean existed below the Europan ice shell, it would be 10 times deeper than any ocean on Earth and would contain twice as much water as Earth's oceans and rivers combined. Credit: NASA/JPL

New research suggests that there is plenty of oxygen available in the subsurface ocean of Europa to support oxygen-based metabolic processes for life similar to that on Earth. In fact, there may be enough oxygen to support complex, animal-like organisms with greater oxygen demands than microorganisms.

http://www.physorg.com/news174918239.html

**howoulduno** · 10-17-2009, 07:54 AM

Originally Posted by SOUL-DRIFTER

I have no doubt there exists something for life in the ocean of water beneath the ice there.

http://www.physorg.com/news174918239.html

water is oxygen ,the tempature was much warmer then expected around jupter ,probe sent back
unexpected results,

***SOUL-DRIFTER*** · 10-17-2009, 09:11 AM

Originally Posted by howoulduno

water is oxygen ,the tempature was much warmer then expected around jupter ,probe sent back
unexpected results,

Water has oxygen by make-up...but water can have a surplus of oxygen which helps fish and the like to breath it.

**Xeno** · 10-17-2009, 09:17 AM

Water contains oxygen molecules, but it's in no way the same. All these basic elements are simply building blocks to make up the world around us.
Here's to hoping the research isn't wrong!

**Andrew** · 10-17-2009, 12:03 PM

Water is a chemical compound containing the elements hydrogen and oxygen. However, pure water is useless for sustaining life, because the oxygen atoms are bound to hydrogen atoms and this forms an entirely different substance to molecular oxygen. For example, if you put a fish in a bowl of boiled water, it will die of suffocation. A fish requires oxygen in solution to be able to breathe, and so do other aquatic organisms. It is this level of dissolved oxygen which determines the suitability of a body of water for sustaining life.