Could there be life on the Gas Giants Moons

        I have talked about the phases of the moon as well as observing the night sky and then I have talked about life on Earth and what makes it possible. I now want to discuss the possibility of life arising in other parts of the solar system. Mars has always been thought to be the place that life would be found but not in the distant past moons around the gas giants have been places of interest in the debate of where life might exist. The ones that I am going to briefly discuss today are Jupiter’s moons (Callistro, Ganymede, and Europa) I will also look at two of Saturn’s moons (Titan and Enceladus). The first four moons that were mentioned are thought to have liquid oceans under the crusts of ices. One knows that there should not be water around Jupiter because it is too cold for liquid water. This means that there have to be a way to explain this liquid. Ganymede and Europa are thought to be heated by tidal forces. Callistro is not heated by tidal forces but it is thought to be caused by radioactivity in its center.  As mentioned above the four moons that have liquid water are thought to be a good place to start to look for life.  Every life-form that we know of needs water, these ranges from the largest mammals to the smallest microbes. Water plays major roles in metabolism as well. One of the places that one should look if they start to search for life on these moons would be under the layer of ice. One may want to start to look at the interface between the rocks and the water; there may be deep sea vents. This is one of the possibilities for the formation of life on Earth. Titan is not like the other moons it is the only moon that has a very dense atmosphere. It has a nitrogen atmosphere and has methane clouds; it is known to have geological activities, lakes, rivers, and seas.  It would not be liquid water bodies but would be seas of hydrocarbons. This environment is very similar to the ones found in the tar ponds in Trinidad and Tobago. There are extremophiles that live in there lakes therefore it may be possible for life to be on Titan. The one major problem of the analog (lake) and Titan is the temperature. Titan is a lot colder and that may cause a problem. Even though life has not been found in the solar system yet scientis are interested in possibility of life on the gas giants large satellites.