Is there life on Europa? NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk
In our hunt for life on other worlds, amino acids could be key. The subsurface oceans of icy moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus might contain detectable amino acids, potential biosignatures of life. But amino acids can also be produced by geological processes, so we need to know if spotting them would really mean we have found aliens.
The first step is to rule out amino acids created when the solar system first formed, which have previously been found on comets. “Amino acids are the building blocks…
