Given the energy available, and chemical makeup of the atmosphere of Jupiter, I would think that an ideal area to look for life not as we know it.
I think Europa. There's water in it. Why jupitar?
I am thinking of life as we don't know it. At present, the view is that it takes water for any life to develop. That may be true. But if not, where could we see life develop differently? Jupiter's atmosphere has organics, many different pressure and heat gradients, and plenty of excess energy.
I remember how the life in the rift zones totally caught all be surprise. Do I expect there to be life in Jupiter's atmosphere? I do not expect it, but I do think that is a possibility.
Jupiter didn't even make the cut. Sorry.
Mars is 700 billion billion tons of iron and rock, wrapped in an unfamiliar landscape of canyons, craters and
calderas. The most compelling thing we could find on this enormous, orange orb would be a microgram of wet chemistry able to reproduce, move, grow, and evolve.
Venus. Despite the fact that Venus, our sister planet, has been described as purgatory personified, there are some researchers who still
hold out hope for life there. The thick, sulfuric acid-ridden clouds of this planet might be a stable environment for floating life. Venusian acidophiles - analogs to a type of bacteria that can withstand highly acidic environments on Earth might eke out an existence there. It's a long shot but we shouldn't rule out life on this nearby world.
Mars. Then and now, everyone's favorite, inhabited extraterrestrial planet. While Mars' highly reactive and
powder-dry landscape is practically guaranteed to be sterile, there is indirect evidence for watery aquifers a few hundred feet beneath the surface. If these liquid reservoirs exist, life may have found refuge within.
Titan. This large moon of Saturn, revealed in detail by NASA's Cassini mission, and subject to shameless examination by the Huygens probe, is far too cold for liquid water. But its air is thick with hydrocarbons. David Grinspoon has suggested that the Sun's weak ultraviolet light might rip apart some of these atmospheric compounds, producing acetylene. Falling into the liquid lakes of methane and ethane below, this gas (best known for firing blowtorches on Earth)
could serve as a food for
microscopic life. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? No.
8 Worlds Where Life Might Exist