* Astronomy

Icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter may have conditions needed for life
Scientists once thought that life could originate only within a solar system's "habitable zone," where a planet would be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. But according to planetary scientist Francis Nimmo, evidence from recent NASA missions suggests that conditions necessary for life may exist on the icy satellites of Saturn and Jupiter.

"If these moons are habitable, it changes the whole idea of the habitable zone. It changes our thinking about how and where we might find life outside of the solar system" - Francis Nimmo, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Nimmo discussed the impact of ice dynamics on the habitability of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter on Tuesday, December 15, at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

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