{"id":311716,"date":"2026-01-30T15:09:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/311716\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:09:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:09:13","slug":"nasa-juno-data-reveals-europa-has-a-surprisingly-thick-icy-crust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/311716\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Juno data reveals Europa has a surprisingly thick icy crust"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Artist\u2019s concept of Europa\u2019s ice shell. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech)<\/p>\n

Europa has always been the Solar System\u2019s most tantalizing \u201cmaybe.\u201d This Jovian moon almost certainly hides a massive, salty ocean beneath its frozen exterior, which makes a prime candidate for life beyond Earth. But a nagging question remains: is the ice a thin, breathable skin or a massive, impenetrable wall?<\/p>\n

New findings published in Nature Astronomy<\/a> suggest the latter. By analyzing microwave data from NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft during its 2022 flyby, researchers estimate that Europa\u2019s rigid outer ice shell is roughly 18 miles (29 kilometers) thick.<\/p>\n

The 18-mile estimate relates to the cold, rigid, conductive outer-layer of a pure water ice shell,\u201d said Steve Levin, Juno project scientist and co-investigator from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory<\/a>. \u201cIf an inner, slightly\u00a0warmer convective layer<\/a>\u00a0also exists, which is possible, the total ice shell thickness would be even greater.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peering Through the Frost<\/p>\n

Juno was actually built to study Jupiter. However, its Microwave Radiometer (MWR)<\/a> has a hidden talent. Because different microwave frequencies<\/a> penetrate to different depths, the instrument acts like a remote thermometer for buried ice.<\/p>\n

During the flyby, Juno came within about 220 miles (360 kilometers) of Europa\u2019s surface<\/a>, and MWR gathered data across six frequency bands. Higher-frequency microwaves tend to sample shallower layers, while lower-frequency microwaves can probe deeper. By tracking how Europa\u2019s microwave \u201cbrightness temperature\u201d changes across those channels, the team could test different ice-shell setups \u2014 thin, thick, clean ice, saltier ice, and so on.<\/p>\n

The conclusion was that the ocean surface had a pretty thick shell, even if the salinity is less than expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the ice shell contains a modest amount of dissolved salt, as suggested by some models, then our estimate of the shell thickness would be reduced by about three miles,\u201d Levin said.<\/p>\n

Why Thickness Matters<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Depiction of processes inside Europa\u2019s ocean. Image via Wiki Commons.<\/p>\n

Liquid water<\/a> is necessary for life as we know it, but it\u2019s not the only necessity.<\/p>\n

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A thin shell acts like a porous filter, allowing surface chemicals to cycle down easily. A thick shell, however, suggests a \u201ctough lid\u201d that makes this chemical exchange much harder. It doesn\u2019t rule out life, but it suggests that the \u201cbreathing\u201d process might be limited to rare, violent events like meteor impacts<\/a> or localized melting.<\/p>\n

It also matters for future missions. A thick, cold outer shell behaves differently than a thin one when it comes to cracking, heating, and recycling surface material. That changes what instruments should look for, and where they should look.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper<\/a> is built for dozens of repeated flybys aimed at measuring the ice shell, the ocean, and how material may move between them. The Clipper is expected to reach Jupiter in April 2030. The ESA\u2019s JUICE mission<\/a> is also headed to the Jovian system, with arrival expected a year later. The two missions are expected to complement each other with coordinated observations. Knowing what to expect could help researchers tweak the mission accordingly.<\/p>\n

Life on Europa?<\/p>\n

For now, Juno\u2019s microwave scan tightens the debate: Europa\u2019s ice, at least in the area Juno measured, looks thick enough that the most obvious cracks and pores probably don\u2019t connect straight down to the ocean.<\/p>\n

That may sound like a letdown. But in planetary science, knowing what doesn\u2019t work is often as helpful as knowing what might. If Europa\u2019s ocean is habitable, it may depend less on simple surface fractures and more on deeper, rarer processes that Europa Clipper and JUICE will be built to chase.<\/p>\n

Life on Europa<\/a> might not be easy to find, but it\u2019s definitely not ruled out. We\u2019re just realizing that this moon is less of a \u201cfrozen pond\u201d and more of a complex, churning engine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Artist\u2019s concept of Europa\u2019s ice shell. (Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech) Europa has always been the Solar System\u2019s most tantalizing \u201cmaybe.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[24368,18,12403,17613,152227,19,17,2663,152228,8197,133,1224],"class_list":["post-311716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astrobiology","tag-eire","tag-europa","tag-europa-clipper","tag-ice-shell","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jupiter","tag-nasa-juno","tag-planetary-science","tag-science","tag-space-exploration"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115984686571215675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}