NASA Europa team reveals the TRUTH behind claims there’s an ‘alien homeland’ on Jupiter’s moon

NASA is preparing to make a big announcement about the discovery of “surprising activity” on Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter.

Naturally, the mere hint of this discovery prompted bizarre claimed that NASA had happened upon an “alien homeland” on the distant world.

But the space agency has now stepped in to quell the rumours with a tweet which insisted aliens have NOT been found on Europa.

It’s likely the discovery relates to an ocean beneath Europa’s chilly crust. However, ET hunters should still have cause for excitement, because there’s every chance this water could be home to alien lifeforms, although a further mission will be needed to find out for sure.

A spokesman said: “Astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa.”

In 1989 NASA begun its Galileo mission by launching a spacecraft to study Jupiter and its mysterious moons. The 14-year-long mission gave us unprecedented insight into several solar system bodies and yielded strong evidence that Europa, about the size of Earth’s moon, has an ocean beneath a frozen crust of unknown thickness.

“With abundant salt water, a rocky sea floor, and the energy and chemistry provided by tidal heating, Europa could be the best place in the solar system to look for present day life beyond our home planet,” .

[youtube //www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqTaDCt_F1Y]

NASA’s mission to Europa has been years in the making and the space agency is aiming to send a spacecraft to land on Europa in the coming decade.

In 2015 NASA science chief John Grunsfeld urged scientists to consider how a potential mission to Jupiter’s small icy moon could search for signs of alien life.

“This is our chance,” Mr Grunsfeld said during a workshop at the Ames Research Centre in California. “I just hope we don’t miss this opportunity for lack of ideas.”

Under the $2.1 billion plan, NASA would search plumes of water vapour that are believed to blast from the moon’s south polar region, possibly allowing scientists to sample the liquid beneath Europa’s frozen surface.

The earliest any spacecraft could blast off for Europa is 2022, and it wouldn’t arrive for another eight years.
NASA will make its announcement at 7pm BST tonight.