NASA Ocean Worlds mission: NASA's space program to search for ALIEN LIFE

Mankind has long wondered whether Earth is unique in the the universe for harbouring life. But a growing scientific consensus is increasingly confident that wetter worlds resembling Earth are the best place to look for alien life. And accordingly, US space agency NASA has now launched its Ocean Worlds Exploration Program (OWEP) in an audacious attempt to track down aquatic alien life in our solar system.

Earth was assumed until recently to be the only planet in the solar system with liquid water.

Ocean worlds represent the best possibility of finding life

Dr Amanda Hendrix

Other planets and moons in the Milky Way were either too hot or too cold.

But now, thanks to various NASA missions sent out to explore the solar system, scientists now understand that is not the case.

Water is actually abundant throughout the solar system, and some moons even contain more water than Earth does.

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NASA Ocean Worlds space program

NASA Ocean Worlds: The US space agency wants to search for alien life on watery worlds (Image: Getty)

shows Saturn's moon, Titan, in ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. The Cassini spacecraft

Cassini: Saturn’s moon, Titan, shown in UV and infrared wavelengths, could harbour alien life (Image: Getty)

Dr Amanda Hendrix, co-lead of the NASA Roadmaps to Oceans World Group, exclusively explains how the Ocean World’s Program represents one of the best chances of encountering alien life.

She said: “Ocean worlds may represent the best possibility, in our solar system, of finding life.

“We need to understand whether these oceans are habitable and if so, whether these oceans actually host life.”

And Dr Hendrix is confident of finding some form of life in these extraterrestrial oceans.

She said: “Now, life in these oceans would certainly be simple, there would not be aliens with green heads swimming around in there.

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“I think it is possible there could be some simple life forms in some of these ocean worlds in our outer solar system.

“And I definitely think it is worth exploring them to find out.”

One of the most intriguing prospects for finding alien life is Saturn’s moon Titan, Dr Hendrix said.

She added: “Titan is a very unique ocean world because it has both an ocean at the subsurface and it also has liquid hydrocarbon lakes on the surface.

“So there could be some crazy form of methane-based life right there on Titan’s surface.”

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NASA Dragonfly mission Titan

NASA: The Dragonfly mission could explore Titan (Image: NASA)

 narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars

Mars: streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flows of water (Image: Getty)

And the NASA scientist believes there is an additional benefit to exploring these distant worlds for alien life.

Dr Hendrix said: “While we find out if they are habitable and whether they can host life, we are learning a lot out about these worlds, which is scientifically interesting.

“Each of these places in our solar system is another clue about how bodies in our solar system formed and evolved.”

The Ocean Worlds Exploration Program appears to signify a strategic shift in the US space agency’d thinking, explains Dr Hendrix.

She said: “We used to think Mars was our best opportunity of looking for life, and now we know that Mars is not currently habitable.

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“So Mars now appears to be our best chance of looking for past evidence of life.”

And the senior NASA scientist is at pains to stress the importance of examining a range of ocean worlds.

Dr Hendrix added: “It is hard to say which Moon represents the best opportunity for harbouring life.

“One thing we ned to consider is how long a celestial body has had its ocean.

“Because it presumably takes some time for life to take hold and then evolves.

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Europa Clipper Mission

Europa Clipper Mission: Ice-penetrating radar will help us understand Jupiter’s moon (Image: NASA)

“So if a body has not had an ocean for very long on a geological time scale, maybe that is not a good option for searching for life.”

And these audacious attempt to conclusive prove the evidence off alien life, will blast off by the end of the decade.

“The NASA Dragonfly Concept is a New Frontiers concept and the selection is between that and its competitor, the NASA Comet Sample-Return mission.

“I believe the decision about which will run will be made later this year.

“One of these missions will happen sooner rather than later, which is very exciting.

There are also proposed missions to visit Enceladus and that would take the form of a flyby mission.

“A spacecraft will fly through the plumes, maybe multiple times, and scoop-up plume material that has been ejected from the subsurface ocean.

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Europa

Europa: NASA’s Voyager spacecraft took this iconic image of Europa (Image: Getty)

The Comet Astrobiology Exploration SAmple Return or CEASAR

NASA: An artist’s vision of the Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CEASAR) (Image: NASA)

Europa Clipper Mission:

The Europa Clipper Mission is a planned attempt to study Europa, one of four moons orbiting the gas giant Jupiter, explains Dr Hendrix.

She said: “The Europa Clipper Mission will carry ice-penetrating radar and that will help us understand how thick the ice is across the surface.

“The launch date date is TBC and the launch vehicle is not there either but the team is working on both of these aspects.

“We will also do a lot of imagery at the surface, because we need to understand the dynamic between the ocean and its surface.

“We know the surface shows a lot of cracks, and whether those cracks penetrate right down to the ocean and material can spill out onto the surface, we actually don’t know for sure.

“Also we have some evidence from the Hubble Space Telescope that Europa exhibits some active plume activity right now.

“And this might be good evidence for ocean material coming up through and escaping from these cracks and making geyser-like plumes.”

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source: express.co.uk