Searching for alien life is a quest filled with excitement for both, scientists and artists. Universe may have its secrets and planets full of life billions of lightyears away from us but a very promising candidate (other than Earth) to harbour life is right here in our solar system. 

Enter Europa, one of four moon of the planet Jupiter. The frigid moon has an icy shell that upto 25 kilometres thick. An below this, scientists think there are vast liquid oceans 60 to 150 kilometres deep. And where there is water, there is chance of life.

But NASA’s Hubble telescope has found water vapour on the frigid moon. Observations made by Hubble between 1999 and 2015 have suggested presence long-term presence of a water vapor atmosphere only in Europa’s ‘trailing atmosphere –  that portion of the moon that is always opposite its direction of motion along its orbit’.

NASA says that cause of this asymmetry, why the water vapour is found in only one hemisphere and not the other, is not yet fully understood.

“This detection paves the way for in-depth studies of Europa by future probes including NASA’s Europa Clipper and the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission from the European Space Agency (ESA). Understanding the formation and evolution of Jupiter and its moons also helps astronomers gain insights into Jupiter-like planets around other stars,” sayss NASA.

These observations have been published in journal Geophysical Research Letters.