>>12705925Things are really going to hit the fan once we can drill into the oceans of Europa.
Liquid water, nutrients, probable hydrothermal activity in the bottom to provide chemical gradients and concentrations of prebiotic chemicals...
Whatever we find there will have huge implications on our understanding of life and the Universe. If we don't find anything in a place so good for life, then abiogenesis must be an extremely improbable event and we are probably never going to meet any life other than ours. On the other hand, this would mean that we are probably miles ahead of the Great Filter already.
Or we can find simple microbes there, or complex multicellular life, or maybe even some intelligent culture - no matter which one of these turns out to be true, it will have grave implications for humanity.
