ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Earlier this week, NASA launched a spacecraft towards one of Jupiter's moons called Europa. Scientists think there could be life there, but what kind? Radiolab's Lulu Miller hosts a science podcast for kids called "Terrestrials," and she set out to find the answer.
LULU MILLER: The spacecraft headed for Jupiter's moon is called the Europa Clipper. It's taken decades to build, and it is now on its way to probe for possible alien life.
CYNTHIA PHILLIPS: (Laughter) No pressure, no pressure.
MILLER: That is NASA scientist Cynthia Phillips, who works on the mission. And instead of me asking the questions today, we collected questions from kids all across the country for Cynthia about why this one little moon - a moon smaller than our moon, a moon that is just one of Jupiter's nearly 100 known moons - is so intriguing to scientists. Here are the kids.
AMRITRA NARATOR: Hi. My name is Amritra Narator (ph), and I am 10 years old. My question is, why Europa?
PHILLIPS: Yeah. So Europa - its surface is covered with ice.
(SOUNDBITE OF ICE CRUNCHING)
PHILLIPS: And then some of our models started showing us that, actually, under all that ice, there could be water. We think that Europa has more water than all of Earth's oceans combined.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER CRASHING)
PHILLIPS: So a huge ocean.
MILLER: Gosh, an ocean in space.
PHILLIPS: Yeah. The reason why we've been working on this Europa mission for 25 years is that as soon as we found that ocean, we were like, there could be life in that ocean.
AARNAV RUDRERACHI: Hi. My name is Aarnav Rudrerachi (ph). I'm 10 years old. My question is, how big is the spacecraft?
PHILLIPS: The whole spacecraft is as big as a basketball court.
MILLER: Oh.
PHILLIPS: So it's gigantic.
MILLER: Wow.
PHILLIPS: This is actually one of the biggest spacecraft that we've ever built and launched.
MILLER: And the reason why, Cynthia explained, is solar panels. Out near Jupiter, the sun's light is incredibly faint, so they needed a basketball court's worth of solar panels to suck up enough energy to power the spacecraft.
ROBALINA SANTOS SORIEL: Hi. My name is Robalina Santos Soriel, and I'm 16 years old. If there's marine life in the ocean, in the moon, what flavor will it be? Like, if we ate it...
PHILLIPS: Oh.
ROBALINA: ...Would it taste different than the fish we have in our oceans?
PHILLIPS: (Laughter) You know, that's a - that's not a question I'd thought about before. That's a really good question. So yeah. If there's life on Europa, very likely, it's a completely separate independent origin of life that's totally different from Earth. And so it's possible that - you know, we don't even know if that life will be based on DNA, on the same amino acids that ours are based on. And so...
MILLER: Wow.
PHILLIPS: ...If we find life on Europa, there's no guarantee that it even would be edible for humans, but maybe we'll have discovered, like, a new flavor of the tastiest fish ever.
MILLER: And any guesses from little things you know about - anything about its chemical composition? Like, I don't know. What it might - would it taste a little more nitrogen-y (ph)?
PHILLIPS: Yeah. Like, if you're making a frozen drink out of Europa, what would it taste like? You know, you're making a slushie.
MILLER: Yeah.
PHILLIPS: Right? And so you take...
MILLER: Yeah.
PHILLIPS: ...Some of Europa's ice. And then you'd have to - it would have to be a little bit salty. It could have, like, sulfur...
MILLER: Raining down from one of nearby Io's volcanoes.
PHILLIPS: ...And be kind of stinky.
MILLER: Would it maybe be fizzy, like, if there's carbon dioxide up there?
PHILLIPS: Yeah. You know, probably the chances are - it's much more likely to be gross than it is to be delicious, but you never know.
ALAN GOFFINSKI: (Singing) It's an icy, salty, fizzy slushy. Maybe sour, maybe stinky. Probably won't want to drinky (ph) - slurp slurp.
SHAPIRO: That was Lulu Miller, host of Radiolab's podcast for kids, "Terrestrials." They have new episodes out now, including one about Europa. To listen, just check out the Radiolab for Kids podcast feed.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.