Europa / jʊˈroʊpə / ⓘ, or Jupiter II, is the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, and the sixth-closest to the planet of all the 95 known moons of Jupiter. It is also the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System.

Jan 21, 2025 · Europa Clipper launched Oct. 14, 2024, on a journey to explore Europa, Jupiter's ocean world. your name is here! Europa Clipper is the first mission designed to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter's moon Europa. There’s scientific evidence that the ingredients for life may exist on Europa right now.

A new NASA study modeling conditions in the ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa suggests that the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist there, even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity.

Jun 8, 2021 · A new NASA study modeling conditions in the ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa suggests that the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist there, even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity.

Sep 17, 2024 · The first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth, Europa Clipper aims to find out if the ice-encased moon Europa could be habitable. NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary mission, will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from the agency’s Kennedy ...

So while Europa is only one-fourth the diameter of Earth, its ocean may contain twice as much water as Earth’s global ocean. Europa’s ocean is considered one of the most promising places in the solar system to look for life beyond Earth.

Jan 14, 2025 · Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of those places. It is a long way from the Sun—more than five times farther than the distance between Earth and the Sun. It is so cold on Europa that water on the surface of the moon is frozen as hard as rock.

6 days ago · Jupiter’s moon Europa is the subject of much speculation about extraterrestrial life, which could exist in the ocean buried beneath the body’s icy surface. Now researchers suggest that a small ...

Mar 26, 2024 · Jupiter’s large moon Europa seems to have an ocean, buried beneath a crust of ice. Astronomers have long thought Europa’s ocean might be habitable by microbes or other organisms. That’s...

Jupiter’s moon Europa has an icy crust covering a vast, global ocean. The rocky layer underneath may be hot enough to melt, leading to undersea volcanoes. Europa's Interior May Be Hot Enough to Fuel Seafloor Volcanoes