Earth as a potential source of life For Europa's subsurface ocean

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for Earth-originating dust particles containing bacteria to reach Europa's subsurface ocean over geological timescales, suggesting a possible natural transfer of life.

Contribution

It quantifies the number of Earth dust particles that could have impacted Europa and assesses the survival likelihood of bacteria during transfer.

Findings

Approximately 3×10^{23} to 8×10^{23} particles impacted Europa over 30-80 million years.

Bacteria could potentially survive the transfer process.

Discussion on the entry of dust grains into Europa's subsurface water.

Abstract

The paper discusses the possibility of dust particles containing living bacteria ejected from Earth, reaching Europa and landing on its surface. It is shown that, taking certain factors into account, over a period of (30-80) Myr (the estimated age of Europa's ocean), Jupiter's moon would have been impacted by approximately $3\times 10^{23}$ to $8\times 10^{23}$ particles in total, within which a bacterium could have survived. In this paper we discuss the possibility of dust grains entering liquid water beneath the surface.