Low-temperature hydrothermal vents could survive on the dark ocean floors of moons like Jupiter's Europa for potentially billions of years, new computer simulations have shown, as astrobiologists strive to figure out whether these alien oceans could be habitable.
Hydrothermal vents are both a source of chemical energy and heat, and are one of the possible locations for the origin of life on Earth. Planetary scientists have theorized that hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the oceans beneath the ice on moons of Jupiter like Europa and Ganymede, and the Saturn satellite Enceladus, could help warm those oceans and kickstart the biochemistry of life.
