Skip to content

Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Artist’s depiction of the jagged, icy surface on Europa, with Jupiter in the background.
Artist’s depiction of the jagged, icy surface on Europa, with Jupiter in the background. Image: NASA

A warm watery world exists beneath the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Gravitational tugs exerted by Jupiter, and not heat from the Sun, allow this water to remain in a liquid state.

Evidence of a subsurface ocean appeared in 2011, when the Hubble Space Telescope spotted geysers spewing out from the moon’s surface. The tallest of these geysers reached heights of 125 miles (200 km). Funnily enough, NASA’s Galileo orbiter flew right through one of these watery jets back in 1997, though we didn’t learn about that until recently.

Artist’s depiction of Europa’s chaos terrain.
Artist’s depiction of Europa’s chaos terrain. Image: NASA

Europa features a scarred surface known as chaos terrains, which are caused by turbulent subsurface waters near the Europa’s lower latitudes. The tiny moon also experiences occasional tectonic shifts, which could be delivering materials to the ocean below. Not surprisingly, Europa is considered one of the best candidates in the solar system to host primitive life.

Related Articles