 life in space You might expect something like this But in the solar system I might disappoint you we were looking for possibly something like this this little guy We found in a lake in Antarctica So it's a micro so it's a good example of life That needs the minimum prerequisites to survive to live And when you hear about life, of course the next thing you you that comes to mind is water So the search for life in the solar system becomes the search also for water in the solar system But where can we then find water in the solar system? Of course, we can find water in our favorite planet planet Earth But why is water there and not elsewhere planet and earth is in the exactly the right distance where Water can remain liquid. So it's exactly the right distance from the Sun Where water does not evaporate because it's too close to the Sun like make mercury is for example And it's not too far away from the Sun and water does not remain frozen like the the giant planets So it's exactly the perfect distance but Let's have a closer look at the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. However So those are the moon systems of Jupiter and Saturn Jupiter and Saturn they have eats some big moons and some smaller moons in total around 60 each and they orbit those planets in nice orbits around them and Those moons you can see here compared to to the earth. That's our nice earth and that's the earth moon Jupiter and Saturn you can see their moons Organized there and we are going actually to look further for looking for life Into Europa and and Celadus. They are the most promising candidates and we will talk about why right now So this up here is in Celadus This is Europa so you can see In Celadus consists of a roti core of a layer of liquid water ocean around that roti core and a ice crust that is around 10 to 30 kilometers thick even thinner at some point You can even see here on the south pole We have found that there are geysers coming out from the ocean and they go all the way very high to see into space and A similar structure for Europa here and also we have very strong indications that there are geysers also on Europa But then why does this water remain liquid so far away from the Sun it should be frozen, right? Well to explain this we we need to have tidal forces, so we all know that the moon and Pools on the earth and it deforms the earth in the way that it pulls the ocean and that would have the tides That we know you can see that very nicely here So in place of the moon imagine having this giant planet in the center of its own Moon system pulling on each of the moons so the moons are in turn. They are deformed Like this the red part here But not only that but also the moons. They do not have perfectly circular orbits They go a tiny bit further at some point in the orbit and a tiny bit closer at other points So they are deformed in different ways throughout their orbit because of this distance difference difference, so You can imagine that this kind of deformation when you have a roti core like this means that the roti core deforms and Become smaller and bigger and then you have friction in the roti core So you have heat generated that is translated, you know it's transferred into the ocean and it's maintained liquid and you can even see here a red hot core for Europe and this nice picture and That's how you have energy So apart from water what what else are we looking for when we're looking for life so and I those nice worlds what else Should there be in order for life to exist? Apart from what are we there should be energy which there is but also energy that can be used for life for metabolism for from for basic life and Basic chemistry so some chemical components that are also needed for life So when you look for these things Essentially, we're saying that you're looking for the habitability of those planets. So that makes those planets habitable but to look for life of course you can look for Life so that means Looking for the signatures of existing habitat. So if planets habitable and then possibly it has Ecosystems of microbes and they produce various signatures which you can then Find you can then sense So how can we look for those two things then First of all With remote sensing which is a fancy way of saying looking from far away from space and already that's a nice picture of Europa from far and You can already see Geological characteristics and this is a picture of and Saladus So even from this picture that is from far away you can see indications of of activity and of oceans that is You can see first you have a cratered a Crater site crater part and the part that looks very much like the glaciers on earth with fresh material and What craters mean in planetary science mean that this surface is very old So it's from an era in the plant in the solar system where a lot of bombardment by meteorites was common And that means the surface is old This tells us no craters the surface is new So there's processes geological processes glacial processes so that indicates towards an ocean Even when you take closer pictures you can see very interesting things This is a picture of the South Pole of and Saladus with the canyons here This is a picture from Europa with rifts. It all looks very glacial like it does on earth So it also tells you a lot about the geology of those places You can make 3d pictures from stereo images taking a picture from one side and a picture from somewhere else you combine those two pictures You can also do you can see the different colors here. You can analyze chemicals there because of those colors and of course pictures of the plumes very impressive Very dramatic This is was taken from Cassini around 2005 the Cassini spacecraft that is in orbit around Saturn and This shows that you have something active an active ocean underneath It's very impressive You can also use radar so you you sense the ocean with radar you can see the interfaces How deep the the cell is the ice cell And then you can constrain your your ocean models and Also magnetometry. So those giant planets. I have magnetic fields. Those fields are modified By the moons and the way they are modified if you have a magnetometer Flying around it can tell you a lot about the internal structure of the moon And there's also other ways, but those are the most common. Let's say the second way is in situ measurements, which is essentially going there and taking samples straight away and Of course, this is can be used more to When you know whenever there's something a chemical you need to Detect then, you know, you go there and you you sample that chemical So this is the cut out your typical cut out of an icy moon You have the ocean the ice is so transport mechanisms either plumes or glacial and the surface and in green we indicate Places where either you have a habitat possible habitat in the bottom and also the interface Or you have places where signatures from life are either trapped or transported to the surface and then we can detect them so this tells us that we can use specific types of spacecraft to go to visit each of those places and Sample them for biosignatures I'll talk to you in more detail about them First we can make a plume fly through so a plume when scientists discovered it. They were very happy It means essentially that you can get a free sample very likely from the ocean So what you can do is you can fly through them and you can capture particles in ballistic gel essentially because you have very high speeds and You can analyze this This particles either on the spot or you can ever even bring them back to earth to be analyzed in laboratories Second you have a soft lander Softlander is what we are familiar with from the Apollo 11 mission where they land on the moon the lampstrong But there they had you know a pilot on board and it was piloting the the lander so it could avoid obstacles and stuff so Over there, it's this is not possible first of all because It takes the signal The electromagnetic signal that is needed to to drive this Three hours back and forth to Saturn and one hour to Jupiter. So you cannot really do it from earth So everything has to be done autonomously so this thing is essentially essentially a flying robot where it Finds its own position by taking pictures of the environment It also senses the environment for hazards and it also can fly to different places according to what it knows So eventually you land and once you land you have something like this a lander That looks like this and you can sample the surface and the near subsurface about you know for chemicals that have been transported from the ocean A cheap and dirty let's say fast and dirty not cheap Spacecraft it's even a fast and dirty soft lander is this it's called a penetrator Essentially, it's a bullet-shaped probe and what you have to do is you have to release it in orbit Deorbit so decelerate until it falls and then it goes into the ice. It buries itself at high impact speed maybe five meters below the surface and that is a fast way cheap way to To sample those depths so at five meters The sample quality is better so you can send this this this thing there Further a more complicated way is a shallow melting probe. So this is a cutout of The plumes of Enceladus you have the canyon the plumes and the plume source So it's like a guy's or an earth essentially and at this point There's always a depth where the water is liquid before it becomes gas so what if you land here and Melt through here to sample water where it's liquid and maybe you can find their microbes that are Still alive or they're still metabolism with active metabolism. So that would be great. So you have first a soft lander. That's The same soft lander as before that's actually where I was working in the beginning of my PhD and You have on each side a melting probe Right here The melting probe is here. It looks like this and this is the logo of the project I was working on which without saying my put here because it actually shows the The concept very nicely the operation concept you land you drill you sense liquid water And those are tests from a tactical So this is the the melting probe and this is the the colleagues I was working with from other universities So they were they were even testing it and they're still working on this and the let's say the most sci-fi concept of all is This a submarine that goes into the ocean and looks around for life that is a fancy way of Showing this and what I like about this is that they are actually building a submarine that is really looks like a squid So I find this funny in a way and The idea is to land on the icy moon drill through the ice with this probe right here And then swim in the ocean go to the bottom and look for life It's very likely well, you know, it's more likely to be around hot sources on the bottom of the sea of the ocean So we have serious quit here Who's asking so has this been done already? What are you talking about? Some of it. Yes. So from the 70s We have had missions that have flown by the giant planets or have been in orbit. Those are their names That's those in the 70s and this is actually Going to be the orbited in a month or something is going to fly into the the atmosphere of Saturn and Also, no the most advanced stuff is now being designed and now Being proposed to fly So when should we expect results from all this to say to hear a positive yes about life in the solar system Yeah, we should wait around the 2030s That's when you know until your plan the mission it takes seven years three to seven years to go there That's a long time. So it will take a bit, but it will be possibly, you know, the big one of the biggest Discoveries of mankind that you know, it will be it will change the way we see the universe and we see ourselves in the universe Thank you very much. Thank you cost us. Are there some questions? Yes, please Yeah, thank you, that's a great question actually there's a policy that the agencies apply NASA is all of them It's called planetary protection and its focus is on microorganisms that you know if you're sending things into sensitive environments That means that has to be a certain, you know Clean up to a certain certain level So it's a very real possibility that you take a micro from earth that survives seven years of space survives long survives vacuum and Then you can find a nice warm ocean and populate and really contaminate that environment It also goes the other way around. So when I spoke about sample return Essentially, you can bring the sample from those worlds and those some this sample can do You know can be based on another type of DNA. It's another type of life. We can do maybe damage here So it goes both ways and it's agencies are taking taking care of this Yes, please It's a certain set of instruments so spectrometers microscopes even antibody arrays Anything you have in a biology lab. I think you can You can consider Miniaturizing and making a proper force for space and to take there Yeah, please I mean there they're in the first picture so No, I'm joking. Sorry actually they I mean, that's another Another aspect of this search. So you're this life in the solar system, which is going to be microbial And then there's like they look around for life around the exoplanets with their planets are discovering around stars So there you can look even if the planet around the star has an atmosphere And if that atmosphere has biosignatures like methane or ozone or stuff like that and there's a third aspect where They're listening in. It's called city. You may be familiar with that. They're listening in for Let's say signs of advanced civilizations like radio signals So this is let's say the search for microbial life in the solar system, which would be still groundbreaking if confirmed I mean, you know believe I Mean, you know my heart is very dedicated to this so Partially, yes would be my question my answer your question Okay, let's move on. Thanks very much cost us