This is something realy cool, and I found my self wondering why no ones comment and makeing bets about when and if we will find life under the ice in the oceans.
my odds 9 out of 10 we will get under the ice before we get to mars

7 out of 10 for finding alge and simple life forms

1 out of for other form of life.

I think this is cool too, let your emagination wonder and just think of the implications if their was life. we might find some new kind of virus like organism that fed on a aids or cancer infected cell, thus curing aids and cancer. I believe that europa in some time will exist. Where humans can studie the sciences everyday without having to worry about the industrial work.

In all good time im sure we will find some kind of life. There is more stars and planets in our galaxy then there are grains of sand on earth. The right conditions exist somewhere out there just as it does for our planet.

I just hope that in our quest for space exploration... we will take the approach that all planets are inhibited rather then not and we won't shoot some weird robots that digs through their planet crust to satisfy our curiosity.

this is the best i love you

WTF?? Leave us alone!!

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.

Europans endorse Ron Paul for president! Mainly because he will kill the space program since it's not in the constitution.

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there.

Well, environmental extremists are attempting to have Mars declared off limits to human exploration - in fact, there is a bill to that effect before the US Senate now. No doubt, they'll want to do the same to Europa.

That being said, there are genuine concerns about introducing Earth organisms into Europa if a robot does penetrate through the ice. According to Archaeology magazine, the Apollo 12 mission recovered portions of a Surveyor lander, and found that it had Staphylococcus on it, from a worker who sneezed on it while assembling the thing. The germs were viable despite having been exposed to the extreme temperatures and extreme ultraviolet radiation of the Moon for more than two years. Or, for something closer to home, the Great Lakes are now thoroughly infested with zebra mussels. The mussel was introduced by a freighter that discharged some ballast water from the Black Sea into Lake Michigan: one moment's carelessness by one human being permanently changed life in the largest body of fresh water on Earth.

It would be an unspeakable tragedy to discover that there is life on Europa, only to have it wiped out by some organism that we accidentally introduced. So, I hope that we can find some way to examine what's under the ice without penetrating it.

There is no form of life on earth that could reproduce and metabolize food in liquid methane. The martian environment is mild compared to this one.

The idea that we could intoduce a species that wreck the environment is pretty silly.

Simple life forms have the ability to develop and thrive in the most harshest of conditions. Hundreds of millions ago, before there ever was an ozone level (eh, Al Gore must not have invented that yet!), microbial life forms took root in the ice-covered and oxygen deprived oceans of our own planet. Why wouldn't the same possibilities exist on Europa?

Chris at 7.02pm.... The liquid under the water ice crust of Europa would almost certainly be water.