Missions of Astronomical Importance

(Continuation...)

That's Some Expensive Sushi

Let's not suspend our search at planets. Most planets in our solar system alone, and more likely than not, most planets in other systems, have multiple companions. None other than Europa, the smallest known of Jupiter's satellites, is a well publicized hotspot for the potential to be teeming with life. Underneath it's frozen surface is the potential for a liquid ocean that could harbor life strikingly similar to the life we have in Earths oceans, from your very small to your very large hostile environment type fish and mollusks, plankton and seaweeds. A waterworld of foreign looking creatures much like those we've already discovered in the great depths of our own oceans. Freakishly weird animals that have adapted to the horrendous conditions they face in the name of no sunlight (but thermal heat from underwater volcanoes, of course). These suboceanic critters could never develop the intelligence levels enough to devise a society of humanlike characteristics or build a warp speed spaceship to come scare us into submission, but it wouldn't be a disappointment in our search either. It would, once and for all, bring to reality that life did form in the water, and life did form very simply at first, then to evolve into more complex creatures. Before we even bother searching for planets we can't possibly travel to yet, we should first recognize that the probability of life of any form on other bodies within our own solar system is quite possible. All it would take is a space mission with a drill and a camera, and we'll gain a new insight into the underground world of a distant body. Perhaps they can also send a trolling net and bring us back some new types of sushi.