The ice of a distant moon
Piercing Europa’s frigid shell to search for life below
CRACKING EUROPA'S SHELL Beneath the icy layer cloaking Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, Europa, scientists believe a vast ocean and a geologically active seafloor could potentially hold habitats for life. Several groups have begun devising ways to burrow beneath Europa’s frozen surface.
JPL-Caltech/NASA
On an unusually hot summer day in Wales, Sanjay Vijendran and colleagues aimed a rocket sled at an elephant-sized ice cube.