There are several “hot spots” in the solar system where life may have once existed or may still exist. (Image credit: NEMES LASZLO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
Who among us, looking at the sky, has not asked himself: is there life somewhere out there, on us? Is it possible that alien life exists closer to us, within our solar system?
The short answer is yes, there are several places in our solar system where researchers are looking for signs of life, and there are some hints that life may be lurking in unexpected places.
Is there life on Mars?
Although Mars doesn't appear to have any “little green men,” it may have once supported microbial life. Mars is now a cold desert, but thanks to rovers that have studied the planet's rocks, we know that it once had liquid water, an essential requirement for life.
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“The Curiosity rover was built to search for habitable environments that might have supported microbial life on Mars in the past, if life had ever arisen on the Red Planet,” said Amy Williams, a professor of geology at the University of Florida and a member of the NASA Curiosity and Perseverance science teams. “The Curiosity payload was chosen for this mission based on the fact that it would look for conditions that we know are necessary for life on Earth — liquid water, a source of carbon, and chemical energy to fuel metabolism,” she told Live Science.
In addition to studying the Martian environment, the Perseverance rover collects promising rock samples to return to Earth for in-depth analysis. NASA and ESA are currently developing the Mars Sample Return mission, which would fly to Mars, collect samples, and return them to Earth. (However, the Trump administration has proposed cutting NASA funding for the mission.)
“At least one of the samples collected has qualities that are consistent with being a possible indicator of ancient microbial life,” Williams said of a particularly interesting rock sample. “Returning samples to Earth via the Mars Sample Return system will allow us to answer some of the most important questions facing humanity, including whether we are alone in the universe.”
Could life be hiding in the atmosphere of Venus? Could there be life on Venus?
Although Venus is commonly referred to as Earth's “twin,” it's probably not the first place in the solar system to look for life. Its surface temperature is hot enough to melt lead, and the average surface pressure is more than 90 times that of Earth. Venus is shrouded in thick, dense clouds made primarily of sulfuric acid, a highly corrosive substance that, when mixed with water, forms acid rain on Earth, harming flora, fauna, and soil.
Despite these harsh conditions, extremophile microbes may be able to survive high in the atmosphere of Venus, where temperatures and pressures are not as extreme; perhaps life can find ways to protect itself from the damaging effects of sulfuric acid. To find out, MIT is organizing Morning Star missions that will travel into the atmosphere of Venus with the ultimate goal of collecting a sample of the planet’s clouds and returning it to Earth for deeper analysis.
“Microbial life could exist in the clouds of Venus, even though they are made of concentrated sulfuric acid,” Sara Seager, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and director of the Morning Star mission, told Live Science. “If we find compelling evidence of life on Venus, it would revolutionize our understanding of habitability and prove that life can exist in solvents other than water, opening up a whole new range of worlds where it might be possible.”
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When searching for life, scientists often focus on finding liquid water, as it is essential for life on Earth. Finding life on Venus would break that limitation, meaning extraterrestrial life could be much stranger than we thought, and there could be many more places to look.
In 2020, the possible detection of phosphine in the clouds of Venus sparked a debate about signs of life on the planet. Phosphine was a surprise find, as most of the known chemical processes that produce it occur in living organisms or under extreme pressure on gas giants. However, the signal was weak, and critics said it could be noise in the data. The Morning Star missions to Venus will give us much more information about the planet’s chemical composition, and may confirm the presence of phosphine in the clouds.
Could life lurk in Europa's underground ocean? Is there life on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter?
There are several moons of Saturn and Jupiter orbiting far from the solar system that could potentially support life, including Enceladus and Europa.
Saturn's moon Enceladus has a global subsurface ocean hidden beneath a thick icy crust. The moon continually spews giant jets of salty water into space, giving scientists a rare opportunity to directly probe the interior of a celestial body other than Earth. The Cassini mission made several flybys of Enceladus from 2005 to 2017, collecting images and even direct samples from these jets, which are still being analyzed. A paper published in Nature in 2023 reported the discovery of phosphates on Enceladus, meaning scientists have now found all the essential chemical components needed for life in the moon's ocean.
ESA and NASA teams are developing several astrobiology missions to Enceladus with the aim of collecting more samples from the plumes, although they are still a long way from the launch pad.
Like Enceladus, Jupiter's moon Europa is an icy world with a global subsurface ocean and jets of water spewing from its surface. Jupiter's powerful gravitational pull on the moon provides the energy and propulsion that fuels intense geological activity, and is thought to be the primary reason the ocean is warm enough to be liquid. The interaction between the salty ocean and the rocky interior could potentially support life, similar to that found around hydrothermal vents on Earth.
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft was launched on 14 April 2023, and is expected to arrive at Jupiter in July 2031. There, it will study Jupiter and its three moons: Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede. NASA's Europa Clipper mission was launched on 14 October 2024. The mission is scheduled to reach Jupiter in 2030 and conduct a flyby of Europa to study whether it could support life.
Titan, another moon of Saturn, is a unique place in the solar system. It has a methane cycle similar to Earth’s water cycle and a thick nitrogen-methane atmosphere. The Cassini mission made more than 50 flybys of Titan from 2004 to 2017 and launched the Huygens probe, which landed on the moon’s surface in 2005. The two missions collected data indicating that Titan’s atmosphere may be capable of creating complex molecules that are the building blocks of life. NASA is developing a car-sized octocopter to fly to Titan and collect samples from multiple landing sites.
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There are plenty of other places in the solar system where we might find life, including dwarf planets like Ceres. Ceres is thought to have plenty of liquid water beneath its icy and rocky crust, based on images taken by NASA's Dawn mission, which visited in 2015.
The more we explore the solar system, the more places we find with conditions suitable for life. If life exists out there, it's probably not advanced enough to contact us, so we'll have to greet it first.
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Damien Pine, Live Science contributor
Damien Pine (he/him) is a freelance writer, artist, and former NASA engineer. He writes about science, physics, technology, art, and other topics, aiming to make complex ideas accessible. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut and gets excited every time he sees a cat.
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