Aliens might quickly be on Jupiter moon Europa as sinking ice ‘creating substances for all times’
Space mission is on it way there to find ET and experts agree the far off is the most likely spot in the Solar System
Jupiter’s large moon, Europa, is covered by a thick crust of ice (Image: Getty Images/Stocktrek Images)
Sinking ice on Jupiter’s moon Europa may be slowly feeding its ocean the ingredients for alien life, boffins say. That is where the Daily Star’s Juice spacecraft is headed in mankind’s hunt for ET.
And experts agree it is the most likely spot in the Solar System to find aliens Europa may have a previously unrecognised way of delivering life-supporting chemicals to its vast sub-surface ocean, according to new research.
One of dozens of moons orbiting Jupiter, it has long intrigued alien-hunting scientists thanks to a hidden global ocean beneath its fractured frozen surface that may contain twice as much salty water as all of Earth’s combined.
But unlike Earth’s oceans Europa’s is deprived of oxygen and sealed off from sunlight ruling out photosynthesis and requiring any potential life to rely on chemical energy instead.
Boffins have been baffled how ingredients for that energy – such as life-supporting oxidants created on the moon’s surface by intense radiation from Jupiter – could be transported through Europa’s thick ice shell to the ocean below.
Now a new study by researchers at Washington State University, US, suggests the presence of a slow but persistent geological process that causes portions of Europa’s surface ice to sink – carrying those life-creating those chemicals downward.
Lead author Austin Green, now a post-doctoral researcher at Virginia Tech, US, said: “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.”
Scientists know from images taken during spacecraft fly-bys that Europa’s surface is highly geologically active due to Jupiter’s powerful gravitational pull.
But most of the motion appears to occur horizontally rather than vertically, according to the study, which limits opportunities for surface material to migrate downward.
Using computer models researchers found pockets of salt-rich frozen water near Europa’s surface can become both denser and mechanically weaker than surrounding purer ice.
These denser patches can detach and sink or ‘drip’ through the ice shell eventually reaching the ocean below in 30,000 years, the study says.
The process, known as lithospheric foundering, resembles a geological process on Earth in which portions of the planet’s outermost layer sink into the mantle.
In 2025 researchers identified it happening beneath the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Spain.
Both the European Space Agency – aka ESA – and NASA are sending spacecraft to study Europa.
The UK Space Agency invested £9m in the ESA’s Juice’s mission which the Daily Star was invited to join in 2023 to watch the capsule and its Ariane 5 rocket being prepared for lift-off.
Its magnetometer – one of 10 hi-tech devices on board – is British and was built by boffins at Imperial College, London, to measure magnetic fields.
A team from the University of Leicester helped make the probe radiation-proof to enable it to operate in deep space.
An Open University team tested and calibrated imaging sensors for the its camera system.
While University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory provided detectors and Aberystwyth University contributed to anti-radiation technology.
The Juice craft is expected to reach Europa in July 2032.
