Moons · Moon of Jupiter

Europa

778 million km from the Sun · Light crosses it in 0.010 seconds

Across

3,122 km

Vs Earth

0.24× Earth

Mass

0.8% of Earth

Open Europa in Cosmic Scale

About

Beneath Europa's cracked shell of ice lies an ocean holding perhaps twice as much water as every ocean on Earth combined. Jupiter's tides keep it liquid, and the seafloor may be warm. It is one of the best places we know to look for life beyond Earth.

Its cracked ice shell hides a salty ocean with twice Earth's water.

At a glance

Orbits	Jupiter, every 3.5 days
Ice shell	15–25 km thick
Ocean	60–150 km deep
Discovered	1610, Galileo

Did you know

1. Its surface is the smoothest of any solid body in the Solar System, and has very few craters — the ice is being resurfaced.
2. NASA's Europa Clipper launched in October 2024 and will make dozens of close flybys from 2030.
3. The reddish streaks may be salts from the ocean below, darkened by Jupiter's radiation.

Real photo

• Europa's cracked surface, from Galileo images reprocessed in 2014 — NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute · source