7 Things You Need To Know About NASA's Big Jupiter Mission

3. Will We Find Any Life?

Conditions on Jupiter are so drastically different to those on Earth, that it would be impossible for life as we would recognise it to survive on the gas giant.

Whilst it's not necessarily impossible that there could be some form of life, or even just strings of proteins, flying around in the planet's atmosphere, a much better bet would be to look at Jupiter's many moons.

If we had to pick one to focus on, Europa - Jupiter's fourth largest moon - is probably the one to go for. In fact, many experts believe that this icy world is one of the best candidates for life in the whole solar system, alongside Saturn's Titan, let alone the Jovian system.

The moon tends to sit uncomfortably in one of Jupiter's powerful radiation belts, meaning that the surface is probably sterile, but it is thought that there lies a liquid ocean beneath the thick crust of ice. As well as possibly being an extraterrestrial oasis for Jovian life, this might also serve as an off-world colony for humans some day (provided we don't run into a hostile race of alien sea snakes).