A new study exploring the icy shell of Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons, finds the frigid satellite shares striking similarities with Greenland.
Evidence of the shallow pools—not far beneath the frozen surface of Europa—emerged when scientists noticed that giant parallel ridges stretching for hundreds of miles on the moon were strikingly similar to surface features discovered on the Greenland ice sheet.
Researchers at Stanford University believe life could have evolved on the Jupiter moon’s shallow pockets of water near the surface.
“Liquid water near…the surface of the ice shell is a really provocative and promising place to imagine life having a shot,” said Dustin Schroeder, an associate professor of geophysics at Stanford.
“The idea that we could find a signature that would suggest a promising pocket of water like this might exist, I think, is very exciting,” he adds.