In certain areas of Europa busted up chunks of the surface -- akin to icebergs -- appear to have "rafted" to different locations. This looks to many experts as if the broken pieces are riding atop a liquid or partially frozen layer.

Several "crackologists" at the Ames workshop said that studying sea ice formation here on Earth should be helpful in comprehending Europa’s ice cover. For example, crack, fault and stress features observed in the Arctic Sea's ice cover are similar to bands, cracks and fracture patterns seen on Europa, said Erland Schulson of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Furthermore, ice as a habitat for life on Europa is conceivable, said Christian Fritsen, a scientist studying Earth ecosystems at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada.

Is life on Europa snug as a bug in a rug?

"I’d say I’m cautiously optimistic about finding life on Europa," said Jeff Kargel, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona. "Practically everywhere that we look, where there’s liquid water we find life...and that includes some very harsh environments that resemble extreme scenarios several of us have painted for Europa."

Kargel said that if an ocean does exist on Europa, "it could be an utterly bizarre place."

"Europa is certainly forcing us to literally dig deeper and look in more problematic types of places where we, perhaps, wouldn’t have looked before for life. Both Europa and Mars are having this effect," Kargel said.

Baruch Blumberg, head of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, said studying Europa is "a great human and scientific adventure," a quest that means carrying out science far away from Earth. "The whole process is a very long one," he said.

Studies of Europa, Blumberg said, have sparked a "re-exploration of Earth environments."

For Tom McCord, a planetary scientist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, a habitat on Europa is more likely there than not. But life taking up room in that environment remains arguable, he said.

McCord and several research colleagues have reported evidence of frozen brines on Europa, based on data collected by the Galileo spacecraft. This material has been spotted near fractures and chaotic terrain on Europa’s surface, probably coming from an ocean below, he said.

Sending future spacecraft to Europa loaded with a suite of carefully selected instruments is key to help resolve the prospects for the life on Europa issue, McCord said.

"We’re asking the most fundamental question that you can ever ask: 'Can life develop independent of the Earth?' The Europa ocean is a fine site for the possibility. Even if the answer in the end is no, life didn’t develop, that’s extremely important. So you win either way," McCord said.