🔬 Discovery

Subsurface ocean of Europa

Océano subsuperficial de Europa

Date
1997-2000 · confidence high
Place
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, United States
Credited to
Galileo probe team (Margaret Kivelson, magnetometer)
Field
Movement

What was discovered

Galileo's magnetometer detected an induced field that requires a conducting layer: an ocean of salt water beneath the ice of Europa, holding more water than Earth.

NASA's Galileo probe; controlled from JPL.

What it led to

  • Astrobiology of ocean worlds
  • Europa Clipper and JUICE missions
  • Redefinition of the habitable zone
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