Evidence of water beneath the surface of Jupiter's icy moon

Scientists have found the best evidence yet for water just beneath the surface of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa.

Analysis of the moon's surface suggests plumes of warmer water well up beneath its icy shell, melting and fracturing the outer layers.

The results, published in the journal Nature, predict that small lakes exist only 3km below the crust. Any liquid water could represent a potential habitat for life.

From models of magnetic forces, and images of its surface, scientists have long suspected that a giant ocean, roughly 160km (100 miles) deep, lies somewhere between 10-30km beneath the ice crust. But punching holes through the moon's thick, icy outer layers has always seemed difficult to achieve.

Glaciologists have been studying the surface of Europa for many years, trying to work out what formed its scarred, fractured surface.

The US and Europe are working on missions to Europa, and Jupiter's other moons, which they hope to launch either late this decade or early in the 2020s.

Europa

Europa was discovered - together with three other satellites of Jupiter - by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in January 1610.

The icy is 350 million miles from Earth, and is one of 64 Jovian satellites. 

In the 1990s, Nasa's Galileo probe sent pictures back of its surface. Europa has a small metal core (light blue, centre), surrounded by a large layer of rock (orange). The surface is thought to consist of an ocean of liquid water (blue) covered by a thick layer of ice (beige).