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Landing on an Ocean Moon: NASA Unveils New Plan to Search for Life on Europa

Artist’s conception of the proposed Europa lander, with sampling arm extended. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech For decades now, Europa has beckoned – this moon of Jupiter which is frozen on the outside but hides a global ocean on the inside – has so far only been visited by spacecraft during brief flybys. Scientists and the public alike have been wanting to return to this fascinating little world…

At a NASA conference, a panel of exoplanet scientists (including Vikki Meadows and Sara Seager) held a lively discussion about some of the most important issues facing the search for and understanding of planets orbiting far-distant stars. In part five of this series, the panelists discuss the Decadal Survey and its inlfluence on exoplanet missions.

At the 2012 Astrobiology Science Conference, Astrobiology Magazine hosted a plenary session titled: “Expanding the Habitable Zone. The Hunt for Exoplanets Now and Into the Future.”

Among the participants were Sara Seager, Professor of Planetary Science and Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Vikki Meadows, Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the University of Washington in Seattle.