Imagine strolling along a moonlit beach at night.
As you listen to the gentle lull of churning waves, you look up and see not one moon, but dozens. This isn't science fiction—it’s a glimpse into the neighborhood of our solar system’s largest gas giant. Today, we’re exploring the efforts to understand the mysterious oceans hidden right in Earth’s cosmic backyard.
Jupiter’s Moon Europa
Jupiter is a busy place, boasting an impressive 97 natural satellites. Among them is Europa, a moon roughly the size of our own, but with a startling secret: a thick layer of water ice floating atop a vast, liquid-water ocean.
What makes Europa truly astounding is its activity; it has been observed emitting plumes of oxygen and water vapor into space. But how does a moon so far from the sun stay warm enough to host liquid water? The answer lies in a gravitational tug-of-war.
Jupiter’s massive gravity, combined with the pull of neighboring moons, constantly squeezes and stretches Europa. John Gianforte, lead observer at the University of New Hampshire, uses a great analogy to explain this "tidal heating":
“Imagine you’re making bread and kneading the dough. If you keep at it long enough, that dough gets hot from the constant squeezing. That friction generates heat. Europa experiences these same gravitational tides ... that internal heat is what keeps its ocean liquid.”
The Long Game: Are We Alone?
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is currently enroute and scheduled to arrive in the Jupiter system in 2030. Its primary goal? To analyze exactly how much water is there and determine the ocean's depth.
But the "long game" is much bigger than just mapping water. Scientists across countless disciplines are trying to answer the ultimate question: Is Earth the only place in the cosmos where life has arisen? Finding even the simplest microbial life elsewhere would change everything. If life happened in two places within our own solar system, there’s no reason it couldn't happen in two thousand—or two million—places across the galaxy.
That is the discovery the world is waiting for.
Cosmically Curious is a partnership between UNH, St. Anselm College, the McAuliffe Shepard Discovery Center and NHPR.
Have a space related question? Email us at Cosmic@NHPR.org
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