A team led by a UC Berkeley professor is urging NASA to send a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, where the group believes there is a significant possibility of finding evidence of life.

Jere H. Lipps, paleobiologist and professor of integrative biology at UC Berkeley, said he believes that the presence of frozen water and probable briny oceans on the planet’s third-largest moon make Europa a prime target for future explorations of life.

“”NASA’s general catch-all phrase for finding life is ‘follow the water,'”” Lipps said.

Lipps, along with three other prominent scientists in the field, held a panel discussion on Feb. 18 at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Francisco. The group detailed the history of Europa and presented the possible issues that must be addressed before such a mission would be feasible.

The group advocates a multi-layered search plan – including objectives in volatile and organic chemistry, molecular biology and paleontology – in order to observe and analyze present or former life on the planet’s moon.

“”They’d better target it very carefully if they’re looking for life,”” Lipps said.

Lipps said his prior experiences inspired him to believe life could potentially thrive on Europa, and compared his current work to a more than 10-year project in which he participated at Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf.

“”I thought, ‘That’s what I’ve been doing for 15 years,'”” he said. He added that he believed his experience in the field could help him in providing the basis for a developed search strategy.

Experts believe Europa has a large ocean that contains approximately four to 10 times the amount of water on Earth, despite being only slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, Lipps said. A large ice layer that could be up to several miles thick covers the surface.

According to Lipps, photos taken by the Galileo spacecraft confirm the presence of ice on Europa, but higher-resolution images would give scientists a better view of any potential life signatures on the surface.

Although the presence of ice plays a large role in the group’s belief that life could exist on Europa, Lipps said that other factors, such as evidence of oxygen and energy sources, corroborate the theory.

“”There’s enough evidence besides the water that leads us to believe we ought to go there,”” he said.

NASA will more than likely fly a mission to Europa at some point in the future, but the primary factors determining the flight’s date will be time and cost, according to Lipps. He declined to speculate as to when the project would be completed, but said that it could feasibly be done around 2015 or 2016.

“”People would have to get working on it, that’s for sure,”” he said.

Lipps said he could not predict what kinds of life could potentially be found on Europa, since scientists would need to see results from the mission before they would be able to arrive at such conclusions.

“”It could be anything,”” Lipps said. “”The evolutionary process on that planet could go in many different directions from Earth. All possibilities are open.””