Jupiter's ocean moon Europa may spout water plumes

Jupiter’s moon Europa may cough water into space from small pockets in its icy crust, a new study suggests. Europa, one of Jupiter’s four big Galilean moons, harbours a huge ocean of salty water beneath its ice shell and is widely regarded as one of the Solar System’s best bets to host alien life.

- Mike Wall

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other instruments have spotted evidence of sporadic plumes of water vapour that rise perhaps 200 kilometres (120 miles) above Europa’s frigid surface. This water may be coming from the buried ocean, raising the exciting possibility that a spacecraft could sample this potentially life-supporting environment without even touching down on the moon.