• Question: is it true that Europa has running water on it and does that mean that there is bacteria?

    Asked by hers532punk53 to Tom, rebeccawarrilow, queeniechan, pratibhagautam, jonathanmound, felixsainsburymartinez, annaparsecwallis on 30 Mar 2026.
    • Photo: Jonathan Mound

      Jonathan Mound answered on 30 Mar 2026:

      Europa is an icy moon. It doesn’t have running water on its surface, which is entirely frozen. But below that shell of ice there is (very likely) a global ocean of liquid water that might be about 100 km thick. Nobody knows if there is life in that ocean, but there is a chance that there is. Finding out is one of the big goals in astrobiology and planetary science. The Europa Clipper satellite was launched in 2024 and will get to Jupiter in 2030. It will provide more data on the chemistry of Europa, which should help answer the question of whether life is likely to exist there.

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