Europa's Hidden Ocean Could Hold More Than Twice Earth's Ocean Water
TL;DR Summary
New evidence from magnetic data, surface geology, and interior models points to a global salty ocean beneath Europa’s ice, potentially containing more than twice Earth's ocean water and kept warm by tidal flexing from Jupiter; the Europa Clipper mission will map ice thickness, ocean depth, and chemistry to assess habitability, though no direct measurements have yet confirmed life or sea depth.
- Beneath Europa’s fractured ice may be an ocean containing more liquid water than all of Earth’s oceans combined, kept warm in complete darkness by the gravitational pull of Jupiter Space Daily
- Scientists searching for alien life are looking ever further out, to Europa, a moon of Jupiter hiding an ocean beneath its ice that could resemble the dark seas where life survives on Earth Space Daily
- A 2026 study found that Jupiter's ocean moon Europa may have a geologically quiet seafloor with little active faulting — meaning the vast hidden ocean long treated as our best bet for alien life may lack the very energy that life would need to survive Space Daily
- Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, is sealed beneath a shell of ice, but the ocean hidden below may contain twice as much liquid water as every ocean on Earth combined — and Jupiter’s gravity may have kept it liquid for billions of years Space Daily
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