Black Smoker?

Question

Can black smokers be found anywhere else in our solar system besides Earth?

Answer 1

The hope is that beneath the ice crust of Europa there lurks a 100 mile deep salt water ocean. Her sister moon, Io is rife with volcanic activity, enough that there are constant volcanic eruptions. Europa is next out in orbit about Jupiter and should have about a tenth (compared to Io) of the orbital resonance/gravity induced flexing in her rocky mantle to cause some volcanic activity at the ocean floor and keep the ice from freezing solid. In fact, some of the pictures from the Galileo probe seem to indicate the surface ice signature of some kind of upwelling heat. So, at Europa we have a gigantic liquid water ocean, organics and a (geothermal) energy source for life to exploit. There will surely be some black smokers on the sea bed and I suspect, advanced multi-cellular flora and fauna.

Answer 2

Black smoker


Black smokers are a type of hydrothermal vent found on the ocean floor. The vents are formed in fields hundreds of meters wide when superheated water from below the Earth's crust comes through the ocean floor. The superheated water is rich in dissolved minerals from the crust, most notably sulfides, which crystallize to create a chimney-like structure around each vent. When the superheated water in the vent comes in contact with the freezing ocean water, many minerals are precipitated, creating the distinctive black color. The metal sulfides that are deposited can become massive sulfide ore deposits in time.


Although life is very sparse at these depths, black smokers are the center of entire ecosystems. Sunlight is nonexistent, so many organisms — such as archaea and extremophiles — must convert the heat, methane, and sulfur compounds provided by black smokers into energy through a process called chemosynthesis. In turn, more complex life forms like clams and tubeworms feed on these organisms. The organisms at the base of the food chain also deposit minerals into the base of the black smoker, thus completing the life cycle.

Answer 3

maybe you confuse black smokers to those mysterious features being observed at the martian south pole, where some sort of geyser or so had been found ?

black smokers by definition are those vulcanic undersea hotspots where boiling water leaves cracks in the ocean floor, soo if you are up for those features on other planets we first need to find another planet with water and vulcanism same time..
black smokers can possibly be found on the ISS as only place besides earth, if smoking would be allowed up there

Answer 4

Do you mean those weird volcanic vents on the ocean floor? Supposedly there are alot on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Some people think that Europa has liquid water under its surface and it is kept liquid by volcanic vents like those here on Earth. If that is true, then there is the possibility that there is life on Europa that is similar to the life clustered near ocean vents here.

Answer 5

"Can" they be..? They could, yes, but the chances are slim and none. Black smokers are found in deep oceans on planets with very active tectonics. So far, no known planets meet those two requirements.