- Is life possible in Europa’s deep subsurface ocean? Some recent studies have cast doubt, but another new study suggests a pathway for life.
- Radiation from Jupiter creates chemical nutrients in the icy crust above the ocean.
- Those nutrients could sink down through the ice layer. Chunks of nutrient-rich ice could then break off and sink into the ocean itself, providing a source of nutrients for possible life.
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A pathway for life in Europa’s ocean?
Earlier this month, EarthSky reported on new findings suggesting that the ocean under the surface of Europa – one of Jupiter’s large moons – might not be geologically active enough to support life. But another new study from Washington State University shows how it could still be possible for life to exist. The researchers said on January 15, 2026, that chemical nutrients in the icy crust encasing the ocean could make it into the ocean itself. If so, they could provide a pathway for life in the ocean, by providing sustenance for living organisms, even if just microbial.
Radiation from Jupiter interacts with salts and other materials to create the chemical nutrients.
The researchers published the intriguing peer-reviewed results in The Planetary Science Journal on January 20, 2026. Austin Green at Virgina Tech (previously at Washington State University) and Catherine Cooper at Washington State University co-wrote the paper.
Study Suggests A Pathway For Life-sustaining Conditions In Europa’s Oceanastrobiology.com/2026/01/stud… #astrobiology #Europa #EuropaClipper
— Astrobiology (@astrobiology.bsky.social) 2026-01-21T19:42:31.797Z
Nutrients in Europa’s ice
Even if Europa’s seafloor is geologically inactive, and therefore unable to produce chemical nutrients, there is another way these nutrients could arrive. The new study suggests that chemical nutrients formed in the moon’s surface ice might be able to reach the subsurface ocean.
Scientists know that the surface ice crust is geologically active. And, in addition, radiation from Jupiter creates some chemical nutrients by interacting with salts and other materials on the surface. But the important question is, could those nutrients reach the ocean?
Feeding the ocean with nutrients
The researchers say it is possible. They found that a process called crustal delamination could indeed allow the nutrients to descend through the upper ice layer and into the ocean.
In essence, the ice is squeezed by tectonic shifts in the ice layer – which are already known to occur on Europa – until some of it breaks off and sinks down through the ocean. The same kind of process actually happens on Earth, where material of the lowermost lithosphere peels away from the tectonic plate to which it was attached.
The ice on Europa would need to be weakened enough to detach and sink, however. The researchers used computer models to show that the denser, nutrient-rich ice would sink all the way to the bottom of the ice shell. It could then detach and sink into the ocean. Green said:
This is a novel idea in planetary science, inspired by a well-understood idea in Earth science. Most excitingly, this new idea addresses one of the longstanding habitability problems on Europa and is a good sign for the prospects of extraterrestrial life in its ocean.
Europa Clipper
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will reach Europa in 2030. It will be able to study the moon’s icy crust and ocean in unprecedented detail. The data sent back to Earth will help scientists determine whether this pathway for life actually does occur. They will also provide new information about the seafloor and whether it really is as stagnant as some recent studies suggest.
Europa Clipper’s 1.8-billion-mile-journey (2.9 billion kilometers) includes one more gravity assist this year, this time using Earth.
Even if Clipper’s assessment of habitability on Europa turns out to be negative, it will still be an exciting mission. This ocean world has fascinated scientists and the public alike ever since NASA’s Galileo spacecraft found the first evidence for its ocean in the late 1990s. What will Europa Clipper find?
Bottom line: New research shows that life in Europa’s ocean could be maintained by chemical nutrients sinking into the ocean from the icy crust above.
Source: Dripping to Destruction: Exploring Salt-driven Viscous Surface Convergence in Europa’s Icy Shell
Via Washington State University
Read more: Europa’s ocean ‘quiet and lifeless,’ new research suggests
Read more: Strange ‘spider’ on Europa hints at water lurking below