Current Events on Europa

Europa's chaotic terrain may harbor materials from its heated ocean. The announcement, published this week in Nature Geophysics, sent a ripple of excitement through the astrobiology community. If proven, it raises the odds that any life harbored in the heated oceans of the sixth largest moon in the Solar System will be detected.

"Ocean water is being transformed into a new kind of ice, which is rising up from the interior and may be carrying ocean material with it," reported co-author Dr. Britney Schmidt, assistant professor at Georgia Tech.