Planetary Science Seminar winter-2019

Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter, is a geologically active and potentially habitable ocean world. Europa contains a global saltwater ocean twenty times deeper than Earth’s, protected from the space environment by an outer ice shell tens of kilometers thick, and has been in contact with a rocky seafloor for potentially billions of years. In this talk I will discuss cutting-edge research into Europa's ice shell, as well as potential robotic exploration missions to Europa, including NASA’s planned Europa Clipper mission and potential avenues for future landed exploration and ocean access.