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A soon-to-launch European mission is the first of two spacecraft—the other from NASA—that will hunt for signs of habitability on Jupiter’s icy moons
Europa, the fourth largest of Jupiter’s moons, has high odds of being habitable. Past studies suggest that an ocean of liquid water lurks beneath Europa’s 15-mile-thick frozen crust. This extraterrestrial ocean contains salts that prevent water from turning into ice, which makes it ideal for life. There is evidence of recent geological formations within Europa’s crust, including small, dark, dome-like features called lenticulae. Discovered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), lenticulae are thought to form above bodies of saline water half a mile to three ...
Jupiter’s fourth largest moon may contain life-giving pockets of water by Jake Pearson The team of scientists has revealed that there are pockets of water inside the icy surface that can sustain life in Europe, the fourth largest moon of Jupiter. A team from the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States used satellite images of features of the Moon’s frozen surface to model their age and size. Read more Scientists speculate that these features are pockets of liquid water within a 15-mile-thick ice sheet that lasted a few thousand years be...