When the sun dies, could life survive on the Jupiter ocean moon Europa?

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Can life survive in the solar system once the sun dies and becomes a red giant star? New research suggests there may be a narrow window of possibility for life to persist on the icy moons of the outer solar system.
It's not exactly clear where the habitable zone of the red giant sun will be, but it could possibly reach the orbit of Jupiter. Although the planet itself won't be habitable because it will still be a giant ball of hydrogen and helium gas, Jupiter's moons might become promising homes for life.
That's according to researchers at the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, who reported the theory in a paper accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In about 4.5 billion years, the sun will enter the final phase of its life. Its core of hydrogen fusion will expand and, in doing so, inflate the outer atmosphere of the star into gross proportions. It will swell and become a red giant star that will engulf Mercury and Venus and incinerate Earth. In the best-case scenario, all that will remain of our planet will be a lump of smoldering iron and nickel. In the worst-case scenario, it will be obliterated.
The sun's habitable zone — the band where the influx of radiation is just right to support liquid water on the surface of a planet — will steadily march outward as the sun begins this new phase of life.
Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa will get a lot of heat. Not only will the giant sun be bearing down on it, but Jupiter itself will become hotter and reflect more sunlight, which will provide its own source of heat to the little moon. The researchers found that the icy outer shell will sublimate and the oceans underneath will evaporate. The most sublimation will occur on the side of Europa facing Jupiter because it will receive the most heat. And because of circulation and convection, the equatorial bands that face opposite Jupiter will also suffer significant water loss.
RELATED STORIES:
—Good news for the alien life hunt: Buried oceans may be common on icy exoplanets
—Jupiter's ocean moon Europa may have less oxygen than we thought
—10 weird water worlds in the solar system and beyond
However, northern and southern latitudes on the anti-Jupiter side of Europa will have a more modest rate of water loss. The researchers found that this could provide a tenuous atmosphere of water vapor that could persist for up to 200 million years. That's a blink of an eye compared with the opportunities life has had to thrive on Earth — but it's not nothing, and Europa may become the home for any life that remains in the solar system in that deep future.
The researchers also found that we might be able to find biosignatures on (formerly) icy moons around red giant stars. We have yet to have any confirmed detections of exomoons, but there are several promising candidates. Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope or the planned Habitable Worlds Observatory might have the resolving power to examine the atmospheric features of these moons. Although it might be an unlikely scenario to find life, it does widen the possible locations for our search, as there may yet be refuges around stars that are nearly dead.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

6 hours ago

• Yahoo

Conspiracy Theorists Are Creating Special AIs to Agree With Their Bizarre Delusions

Conspiracy theorists are using AI chatbots not only to convince themselves of their harebrained beliefs, but to recruit other users on social media. As independent Australian news site Crikey reports, conspiracy theorists are having extensive conversations with AI chatbots to "prove" their beliefs. Then, they post the transcripts and videos on social media as "proof" to others. According to the outlet's fascinating reporting, there are already several bots specifically trained on harebrained conspiracy theories, including a custom bot designed to convince parents not to vaccinate their children. The news highlights a troubling trend, with countless ChatGPT users developing bizarre delusions and even spiraling into severe mental health crises, as we reported last week. Experts have warned that AI chatbots are designed to be incredibly sycophantic, predisposing them to agreeing with users even when doing so is clearly harmful. Much like delusions of spiritual awakenings, messianic complexes, and boundless paranoia, conspiracy theorists are finding the perfect conversational partner in tools like ChatGPT. Since they were trained on the open web — an enormous data set that includes unfounded conspiracy theories, like the belief that vaccines cause autism — they can easily be coaxed into furthering these theories. As Crikey reports, one chatbot called Neo-LLM was trained by a Texan anti-vaxxer using over 100,000 dubious articles from the far-right conspiracy theory news website Natural News. It's unclear how many users have downloaded the chatbot, but promotional videos have garnered tens of thousands of views. In short, it's an alarming trend that shows the dangers of powerful AI chatbot tech falling into the wrong hands. In particular, people suffering from mental health issues can be convinced they're talking to a real authority, rather than a parroting language model that continuously calculates the probability of the next word. That kind of delusion can have devastating consequences. As the New York Times reported last week, a 35-year-old man — who had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia before becoming obsessed with ChatGPT — was shot and killed by police after he charged at them with a knife following a mental health crisis centering on the bot. Since AI chatbots have become incredibly effective at generating convincing-sounding answers, their ill use could have real-life implications. Researchers have shown that AI chatbots can easily be weaponized and taught how to spew an endless firehose of disinformation. With the Trump administration actively rolling back AI regulations and key politicians furthering anti-vaccine conspiracy theories themselves, the future looks bleak. Even tech companies have historically failed to implement effective guardrails to stop chatbots from hallucinating. However, some experts have pondered if the tech could be used for good as well. Last year, researchers at MIT found that chatbots can also be used to reduce the belief in conspiracy theories, a glimmer of hope as the internet becomes increasingly polluted with deranged, AI-generated claims. More on AI delusions: People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions

Business Upturn

8 hours ago

• Business Upturn

Novo Nordisk A/S: Mim8 prophylaxis treatment shown to be well-tolerated when switching from emicizumab in people with haemophilia A in new phase 3 data presented at the ISTH 2025 Congress

By GlobeNewswire Published on June 23, 2025, 00:35 IST New FRONTIER5 data show that a direct switch to investigational Mim8 (denecimig) prophylaxis treatment from emicizumab, without the need for a washout period, was well-tolerated with no safety concerns in adults and adolescents with haemophilia A, with or without inhibitors 1 . . Switching to Mim8 led to a sustained increase in thrombin generation into the normal range, but without causing thrombin levels that might pose a thrombotic risk 1 . . FRONTIER5 Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) assessment found the Mim8 pen-injector easy to use, with strong user preference over their emicizumab injection system 2 . . These results add to the overall safety profile of Mim8 based on the FRONTIER clinical trial programme3. Bagsværd, Denmark, 22 June 2025 – Novo Nordisk today presented results from the phase 3b FRONTIER5 trial showing that a direct switch to investigational Mim8 (denecimig) prophylaxis from emicizumab treatment, without a washout period or Mim8 loading dose, was well-tolerated with no safety concerns in adults and adolescents living with haemophilia A, with or without inhibitors1. Additionally, a FRONTIER5 Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) assessment found the Mim8 pen-injector easy to use, with an overall strong user preference for the pen-injector compared to the previous emicizumab injection system2,3. The results were presented at the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) Congress in Washington, D.C. In the study, the first Mim8 maintenance dose was administered on the next planned emicizumab dosing day. Patients were given the option of switching to once-monthly, once every two weeks or once-weekly dosing frequencies of Mim8, regardless of their prior dosing frequency1,3. Steady-state Mim8 concentration was achieved by Week 16, and emicizumab elimination was completed by Week 261. Switching to Mim8 led to a sustained increase in thrombin peak levels without an exaggerated thrombin response1. 'Continuous prophylactic coverage is critical to avoiding breakthrough bleeds in people living with haemophilia; with new non-factor therapeutic options, many people could have hesitations about switching treatment options. These data demonstrate that switching to Mim8 from emicizumab can be done without requiring a washout period,' said Allison P. Wheeler, MD, Washington Center for Bleeding Disorders, Seattle, WA. 'This is critical in ensuring that individuals maintain continuous protection against bleeding events as we seek to help address the ongoing needs of people living with this complex disease.' The open-label phase 3b FRONTIER5 study consisted of 61 adults and adolescents, aged 12 years and older, with haemophilia A. Mim8 was well-tolerated with no safety concerns. No thromboembolic events, hypersensitivity reactions, or treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) leading to discontinuation were observed, and there was no clinical evidence of neutralising anti-Mim8 antibodies1. The PROs data from FRONTIER5 indicated a strong overall preference for the Mim8 pen-injector, with 97% (n=57/59) of patients reporting a 'very strong' or 'fairly strong' preference in comparison to their previous emicizumab injection system2. Of the participants who completed the Haemophilia Device Handling and Preference Assessment (HDHPA) questionnaire at week 26, 98% (n=58/59) found the Mim8 pen-injector 'very easy' or 'easy' to use, and 95% (n=56/59) found it 'much easier' or 'easier' compared with their previous administration method. All participants (100%) were 'extremely confident' or 'very confident' in using the pen-injector correctly, and most participants (83%; n=49/59) found it 'very easy' to inject the dose2. 'The FRONTIER5 safety and patient-reported outcomes data support Mim8 as a potential future treatment option for people living with haemophilia A and demonstrate our continued commitment to developing innovative treatment options for this community', said Stephanie Seremetis, chief medical officer and CVP for Haemophilia at Novo Nordisk. 'These results give valuable insights into haemophilia A management, highlight the feasibility of directly switching to Mim8 from emicizumab, and reveal a strong patient preference for the Mim8 pen-injector device.' Novo Nordisk expects to submit Mim8 for regulatory review during 2025. Data from the ongoing phase 3 FRONTIER programme will be disclosed at upcoming congresses and in publications in 2025 and 2026. About haemophilia Haemophilia is a rare inherited bleeding disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding4. It is estimated to affect approximately 1,125,000 people worldwide5. There are different types of haemophilia, which are characterised by the type of clotting factor protein that is defective or missing4. Haemophilia A is caused by a missing or defective clotting Factor VIII (FVIII), and haemophilia B is caused by a missing or defective clotting Factor IX4. Inhibitors are an immune system response to the clotting factors in replacement therapy. Currently, it is estimated that up to 30% of people living with severe haemophilia A develop inhibitors6 that can cause replacement therapies to stop working. About Mim8 Mim8 is an investigational FVIIIa mimetic bispecific antibody optimised with the aim to deliver improved potency and sustained efficacy across flexible dosing intervals up to once-monthly prophylaxis for people living with haemophilia A, with or without inhibitors7-10. Administered under the skin, Mim8 bridges Factor IXa and Factor X. This action replaces FVIII function, which helps restore the body's thrombin generation capacity into the normal range, helping blood to clot7,11. The use of Mim8 in people living with haemophilia A is investigational and not approved by regulatory authorities or available anywhere in the world. About the FRONTIER5 trial FRONTIER5 is a single-arm, open-label, 26-week, phase 3b trial evaluating the safety of switching from previous emicizumab prophylaxis treatment directly to Mim8 prophylaxis treatment using the Mim8 pen-injector in adults and adolescents with haemophilia A, with or without inhibitors3. The FRONTIER clinical programme investigates Mim8 as a prophylaxis treatment for people with haemophilia A, with or without inhibitors. This programme includes FRONTIER1, FRONTIER2, FRONTIER3, FRONTIER4 and FRONTIER53,12-15. About Novo Nordisk Novo Nordisk is a leading global healthcare company founded in 1923 and headquartered in Denmark. Our purpose is to drive change to defeat serious chronic diseases built upon our heritage in diabetes. We do so by pioneering scientific breakthroughs, expanding access to our medicines, and working to prevent and ultimately cure disease. Novo Nordisk employs about 77,400 people in 80 countries and markets its products in around 170 countries. For more information, visit , Facebook , Instagram , X , LinkedIn and YouTube . Contacts for further information _______________________ References Oldenberg J, Benson G, Chowdaryet P, et al. FRONTIER5 direct switch study: Safety of initiating Mim8 prophylaxis without washout of emicizumab. Oral presentation presented at the Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2025; June 21-25 2025; Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C., US. Session code 13686. Mahlangu J, Ahuja S, Cockrell E, et al. FRONTIER5 device handling and patient-reported outcomes. Oral presentation presented at the Congress of the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis 2025; June 21–25 2025; Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington D.C., US. Session code 13786. A Research Study Looking at How Safe it is to Switch From Emicizumab to Mim8 in People With Haemophilia A (FRONTIER5). Available at: Last accessed: June 2025. MedlinePlus. Hemophilia. Available at: Last accessed: June 2025. Iorio A, Stonebraker JS, Chambost H, et al. Establishing the Prevalence and Prevalence at Birth of Hemophilia in Males: A Meta-analytic Approach Using National Registries. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171:540–546. doi: 10.7326/M19-1208. Kim JY, You CW. The prevalence and risk factors of inhibitor development of FVIII in previously treated patients with hemophilia A. Blood Res. 2019;54:204-209. doi: 10.5045/br.2019.54.3.204. Ostergaard H, Lund J, Greisen PJ, et al. A factor VIIIa-mimetic bispecific antibody, Mim8, ameliorates bleeding upon severe vascular challenge in hemophilia A mice. Blood. 2021;138:1258-1268. doi: 10.1182/blood.2020010331. Mancuso EM, et al. Efficacy and safety of Mim8 prophylaxis in adults and adolescents with hemophilia A with or without inhibitors: Phase 3, open-label, randomized, controlled FRONTIER2 study. Abstract presented at the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) 2024 Congress. Kenet G, et al. Patient- and caregiver-reported outcomes with subcutaneous Mim8 prophylaxis in paediatric patients with haemophilia A with or without factor VIII inhibitors: phase 3 FRONTIER3 study. Abstract presented at the European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders (EAHAD) 2025 Annual Congress. Session 6. Chowdary P, Banchev AM, Kavakli K, et al. Safety and Efficacy of Mim8 Prophylaxis Administered Once Every Two Weeks for Patients with Hemophilia A with or without Inhibitors: Interim Analysis of the FRONTIER4 Open-Label Extension Study. Abstract presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2024 Annual Congress. Session: 322. U.S. National Library of Medicine. F8 gene. MedlinePlus Genetics. Available at Last accessed: June 2025. A Research Study Investigating Mim8 in People With Haemophilia A (FRONTIER1). Available at: Last accessed: June 2025. A Research Study Investigating Mim8 in Adults and Adolescents With Haemophilia A With or Without Inhibitors. Available at: Last accessed: June 2025. A Research Study Looking at Mim8 in Children With Haemophilia A With or Without Inhibitors. Available at: Last accessed: June 2025. A Research Study Looking at Long-term Treatment With Mim8 in People With Haemophilia A (FRONTIER4). Available at: Last accessed: June 2025. Attachment Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with GlobeNewswire. Business Upturn takes no editorial responsibility for the same. Ahmedabad Plane Crash GlobeNewswire provides press release distribution services globally, with substantial operations in North America and Europe.

Forbes

11 hours ago

• Forbes

White House Aims To Halt Fantastical NASA Missions Across Solar System

The New Horizons spacecraft sends back its sensational snapshots of Jupiter, and its volcanic moon ... More Io, before the mission's close encounter with Pluto (Photo by: Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Universal Images Group via Getty Images The White House bid to terminate NASA's leading-edge flights of exploration 'across the solar system' threatens to explode American leadership in discoveries that have reshaped civilization since the rise of the first Space Age, says one of the world's top planetary scientists. As space powers across the continents vie to map and image planets and moons, comets and ice-worlds circling the sun, slashes to NASA's funding would represent a great leap backward, crippling it even as rivals race ahead, says Alan Stern, a one-time leader at NASA and a globally acclaimed space scientist. The president's new proposed budget drastically cuts appropriations for NASA, with outlays for its planetary science missions—the exploration of Pluto and other celestial worlds by space-borne rockets and robots, cameras and telescopes—axed almost in half. Now facing the guillotine—inexplicably—are constellations of technologically advanced space probes developed by NASA and spearheading scientists across America, including the Juno imager now orbiting Jupiter, the Mars Odyssey and Maven spacecraft gliding above Mars and the asteroid hunter OSIRIS-Apophis. NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, is one of the leading-edge explorers slated to ... More be terminated by the White House. Shown here is an artist's impression of the orbiter. (Photo) Getty Images 'Incredibly, this budget proposes to turn off 55 perfectly working, productive spacecraft across the solar system,' Dr. Stern, who once headed NASA's Science Mission Directorate, tells me in an interview. Stern took up that post after conceiving and designing one of the American space agency's most sensational missions ever - the New Horizons spacecraft that aced a close approach with Pluto while sending back fantastical images of the otherworldly orb and its moons - a miniature planetary system that generated billions of hits when it began beaming down across NASA's website. While New Horizons continues its super-speed flight through the outer solar system, charting the mysterious frozen reaches of the Kuiper belt, the president's plan calls for the spacecraft to be cast away. Abandoning the $900-million mission in order to recoup the minimal costs of its ongoing operation makes no sense economically or scientifically, Stern says. The robotic photographer New Horizons images Pluto as it speeds through the outer solar system ... More (Photo by NASA/APL/SwRI via Getty Images) Getty Images 'With New Horizons,' he says, 'there are a lot of important scientific objectives still ahead, things no other spacecraft can do.' 'Terminating this mission would also represent a tragic loss of soft power projection for the U.S.' The Horizons craft, and its array of next-generation cameras and spectrometers, is exploring a region beyond Pluto that no other human-created probe has ever entered, with a treasure trove of potential discoveries waiting. 'This would be like sending a message to [Christopher] Columbus to sink his ships while they were in North America,' Stern tells me, upending a new age of discovery. 'With New Horizons, we have the power and the fuel to run this mission for another 20 years … and we have more Kuiper belt objects to explore.' The White House, in issuing its slashed budget plan for NASA, never provided a logical rationale for torpedoing some of the agency's world-leading missions to survey and image the solar system. Its inscrutable sinking of some of these vanguard voyages was unveiled with the terseness of a telegram: 'Operating missions that have completed their prime missions (New Horizons and Juno) and the follow-on mission to OSIRIX-REx, OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer, are eliminated.' The asteroid-hunter OSIRIS spacecraft, shown here at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is one of ... More the trailblazers set to be terminated by the White House. (Photo by Bruce Weaver / AFP) (Photo by BRUCE WEAVER/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images The OSIRIS spacecraft, which had been slated to rendezvous with the closely approaching Apophis asteroid ahead, is a precursor mission to defending the Earth's eight billion citizens against doomsday cosmic strikes by colossal comets or asteroids of the future. The robotic photographer Juno has snapped an endless kaleidoscope of imagery as it floats around Jupiter. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab have posted raw impressions of the orb and its moons and invited 'citizen scientists' to Photoshop and launch them across the cybersphere. In the process, they are becoming part of the spacefaring civilization that is spreading out across the globe. Model of the $1-billion Juno spacecraft, which is now orbiting and photographing Jupiter (Photo by ... More) Getty Images During its own space odyssey, New Horizons has astounded stargazers, students and scholars worldwide with its technicolor panoramas of Pluto, covered in surreal ice-fields and cryo-volcanoes, and its age-old companion Charon. The twin netherworlds—named after the mythical Greek god of the underworld and the pilot who shuttled souls across the river Styx—circle more than five billion kilometers distant from the sun, along an orbit that Stern's Pluto expedition took nine years to reach. Now, even as it whizzes beyond all of the classical planets, New Horizons, and its future, has entered the purgatory of potential excommunication by mission controllers—and their masters—six worlds away. The New Horizons spacecraft, now speeding through the outer solar system, could be jettisoned under ... More a White House plan that would destroy American leadership in planetary science missions. (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images) Heritage Images via Getty Images 'This is a vast and tragic mistake,' Stern says, 'because the issue is larger than just NASA, it also affects U.S. world leadership [and] responsible government that protects taxpayers from waste like this.' The administration's crash-and-burn dismissal of the solar system's trailblazing robotic discoverers has triggered trepidation across NASA, whose ranks of pioneering scientists are likewise set to be culled. Within NASA, Alan Stern is a pole star of cutting-edge exploration, helping guide more than two dozen missions. After his New Horizons spacecraft rendezvoused with Pluto, the agency bestowed its highest honor on him - the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. 'Stern led the team that returned remarkable imagery and other data from the Pluto system last summer, generating headlines worldwide and setting a record for the farthest world ever explored,' NASA's leaders said. "New Horizons represents the best of humanity and reminds us of why we explore,' added Jim Green, NASA's director of planetary science. "The first flyby of Pluto is a remarkable achievement.' Being given the chance to lead the close encounter with Pluto, Stern said on accepting the award, 'has been the greatest honor of my lifetime.' Around the same time, NASA film-makers paid tribute to Stern, his 2000+ Pluto mission colleagues, and the target of their interplanetary expedition in the captivating documentary ' The Year of Pluto .' Stern has himself chronicled his trek across the twilight reaches of the star system in a stream of fascinating books, including Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System and Chasing New Horizons, and in a torrent of acclaimed papers . Scholar Stern predicts that if the White House's proposed death sentence for flotillas of pathfinding space missions is actually carried out, that would mark the decline and fall of NASA's planetary science breakthroughs, and the comparative rise of its competitors in the renewed space race of the 2020s. If NASA's funding and inter-planet journeys are decimated, he tells me, 'These cuts will absolutely destroy U.S. leadership in all the space sciences.' 'This is tragically misguided.' The potential death knell for an armada of space discovery missions has been reverberating not just across NASA, but also throughout the U.S. universities that help conceive or design these flights. 'Certainly termination of the New Horizons mission would be terrible,' says Kip Hodges , who as founding director of Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration helped transform the university into one of the top American space studies centers. 'This a real frontier mission at this point,' he tells me in an interview, 'delivering important new information about distant parts of our Sun's heliosphere.' Congress has the power to save NASA and its leading-edge robotic explorers across the solar system ... More (Illustration by Tobias Roetsch/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Future Publishing via Getty Images Professor Hodges , one of the top space scholars in the U.S., predicts that the Swords of Damocles now hanging above New Horizons and other new-frontier flights could still be lifted. If the White House plan to cut away at NASA and its revolutionary planetary scouting missions were enacted as is, he predicts, 'a great many folks in industry, the NASA labs, and academia will be disappointed.' Yet he adds that 'the budget for NASA evolves over several stages,' with the president's initial proposal just one of competing models—one that could be rejected as the Senate and House of Representatives look afresh at NASA's missions, goals and funding. After the twin chambers reach a consensus on reshaping NASA for the next phase of its evolution, Professor Hodges adds, 'Quite often, the appropriated budget is not the president's budget.' That means space aficionados across America who seek to overturn the president's capital sentence on NASA's boundary-breaking missions have a clear channel of recourse, Stern says. Would-be petitioners for a reprieve, he advises, 'should contact their elected representatives in Congress and tell them this is a huge mistake.'