Check out this stunning video that shows the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa like you've probably never seen it.
A new NASA flyover animation takes viewers low over the ridged plains of Europa, a small, ice-covered moon of Jupiter long studied for what may lie beneath its surface. The video, assembled from stereo image data collected by NASA’s Galileo mission, turns decades-old observations into a terrain-level tour that doubles as a scientific visualization. The result is not a new discovery on its own, but a clearer way to see the surface features that make Europa one of the leading targets in the search for environments that could support life.
Europa has drawn attention because multiple lines of evidence point to a global, salty ocean under its ice shell. NASA describes that ocean as likely holding about twice as much water as Earth’s global ocean, sealed off from space by an outer crust that is cracked, shifted, and reworked.
A frozen surface that looks active
Europa is one of the four large moons found by Galileo Galilei in 1610 and is slightly smaller than Earth’s Moon. Its surface stands out in the outer solar system: instead of being dominated by craters, much of Europa is covered in long grooves, double ridges, and jumbled “chaos terrain,” a pattern NASA links to the idea that the ice shell has been reshaped over time rather than sitting still for billions of years.
The flyover highlighted by NASA’s Ridged Plains Flyover focuses on exactly that kind of landscape. In the animation, ridges run for kilometers across the scene, while smaller, freckle-like features called lenticulae dot the plains. NASA notes these patches are typically 5 to 10 kilometers wide and may mark places where material has pushed upward from deeper within the ice shell.
Near the end of the sequence, the terrain becomes disrupted and blocky. NASA describes these areas as chaos terrains, where the outer ice shell appears to have been severely broken by heat and partial melting in the ice below. Those features matter because they point to pathways, at least in principle, by which surface materials could be mixed downward or subsurface materials could be brought closer to the top.
The ocean below, and why it stays liquid
The central claim about Europa is that a deep ocean lies beneath its ice. NASA’s overview of the moon says scientists believe Europa’s ocean sits below an ice shell and could contain key chemical elements considered important for life. The strongest evidence is indirect: Galileo measured disturbances around Europa consistent with an induced magnetic field, which NASA explains is best matched by a global layer of electrically conductive fluid, likely salty water, beneath the surface.
How thick is the ice? The number is still an estimate, and it depends on where you look and how you infer it. NASA’s Europa fact sheet says the ocean is likely buried under a shell of ice about 15 to 25 kilometers thick, with an ocean depth estimated at 60 to 150 kilometers. More recent analysis from NASA’s Juno mission suggests that in at least one region observed during a 2022 flyby, the shell may average about 29 kilometers thick. Taken together, those figures underline the same point: Europa’s ocean is not a shallow pocket. If it exists as expected, it is a planet-scale body of water.
Europa’s ocean is thought to remain liquid because of tidal forces. As the moon orbits Jupiter, gravity flexes Europa’s interior, generating heat. NASA points to tidal heating as a driver of activity near the ice-ocean boundary and as a possible cause of disrupted surface features and potential plumes in some scenarios. A separate question is whether that internal energy reaches the seafloor in a way that could support long-lived chemical cycling. Some researchers have suggested hydrothermal activity could exist, but that remains a hypothesis rather than an observed fact.
What the simulated flyover adds
The flyover does not replace measurements. It reorganizes them. Stereo imaging, the technique behind the visualization, uses pictures taken from different angles to infer topography. NASA says the Ridged Plains Flyover was created from Galileo stereo data and that the underlying region was imaged at about 35 meters per pixel. Those details matter because they set the scale: the cliffs and ridges in the animation are not artistic choices. They are based on the best available shape information from Galileo’s close passes.
In the flyover, the relief is pronounced. NASA says this particular region includes about 1 kilometer of elevation difference between its lowest and highest areas. That kind of vertical variation can help scientists test ideas about how Europa’s ridges form, how the ice shell deforms, and whether certain regions hint at thicker, colder ice or warmer, weaker zones.
The surface is also a chemical interface. Europa’s atmosphere is extremely thin, but NASA notes it is a tenuous oxygen atmosphere, not breathable and not dense in any Earthlike sense. Radiation from Jupiter can split water ice at the surface, producing oxidants that could, in theory, be transported downward if there are mechanisms that connect the surface to the ocean. That possibility is one reason Europa remains high on the list for habitability studies, even though the key environment of interest is hidden.
Europa Clipper is en route
The next major step is new data. NASA’s Europa Clipper launched on Oct. 14, 2024, and is now in cruise, with arrival at Jupiter planned for 2030. Rather than entering orbit around Europa, the mission is designed to loop around Jupiter and make nearly 50 flybys of Europa to map the surface, probe the ice, and study the moon’s environment.
The spacecraft’s payload is built around that goal. NASA says Europa Clipper carries cameras and spectrometers to map surface composition, along with an ice-penetrating radar intended to probe the shell for reflections that could indicate internal layering, pockets of water, or the top of the ocean. Other instruments will measure the magnetic field and particles near Europa, tightening the case for the ocean and clarifying how the moon exchanges material with space.
Until those observations arrive, visualizations like the Ridged Plains Flyover are a way to connect the public-facing view of Europa to the underlying data and to the scientific questions that drive the mission. Europa’s appeal is not that it is easy to reach or easy to read. It is that the surface seems to record an active ice shell, and the physics of the system provides a credible route to liquid water below. That combination keeps Europa near the center of NASA’s plans for the outer solar system
