Europa
Jupiter's ocean world
Beneath Europa's cracked ice shell lies a salty global ocean — possibly twice the volume of all Earth's oceans. It may be the best place to find alien life.
Image: NASA / Galileo
Vital statistics
Orbits
Jupiter
Gravity vs Earth
0.134 g
Diameter
3,121 km
Ice shell
15–25 km thick
Ocean depth
60–150 km
Did you know
Smoothest surface of any solid body in the solar system.
Fact 01
Plumes of water vapor erupt from the surface.
Fact 02
NASA's Europa Clipper mission launched in 2024.
Fact 03
Research & publications
Jump straight into peer-reviewed papers, preprints and authoritative references for Europa.
arXiv (preprints)
Open-access preprints in physics & astrophysics.
NASA ADS
The definitive bibliographic database for astronomy.
Google Scholar
Cross-publisher academic search.
Nature
Peer-reviewed articles in Nature & sister journals.
Wikipedia
Encyclopedic overview & onward references.
Tip: ask the Research AI for a curated reading list → /research
