NASA could discover alien life on Jupiter in 2030.
NASA are looking to discover alien life on Jupiter
The US space agency will launch its five-and-a-half-year journey to the gas giant's Europa moon in October and instruments inside the Europa Clipper craft are able to detect a single living cell from a tiny ice grain ejected from the moon's oceans.
NASA decided to study Europa as it is full of water and other nutrients, meaning that it could support forms of life.
Fabian Klenner, lead author of the study at the University of Washington, said: "For the first time we have shown that even a tiny fraction of cellular material could be identified by a mass spectrometer onboard a spacecraft.
"Our results give us more confidence that using upcoming instruments, we will be able to detect lifeforms similar to those on Earth, which we increasingly believe could be present on ocean-bearing moons."