As far as candidates for nearby worlds that may contain life, Jupiter's frosty moon Europa is one tantalizing place for scientists to look. Astrobiologists speculate that alien life forms could reside in Europa's icy crust and the massive ocean that churns underneath. Yet these prospects appear somewhat less likely in light of a recent study by the journal Nature Astronomy, which finds that Europa has much lower amounts of oxygen — an element essential to all known forms of complex life — than previously thought.
It all comes down to the question of Europa's atmosphere: How many pounds of molecular oxygen per second does it produce? Scientists had previously estimated that Europa created anywhere from a few to over 2,000 pounds per second. As it turns out, the amount of is a meager 26 pounds per second.
