Is the Ocean of Europe Dead? Its Background Seems so, but a NASA Scientist Believes that the Radioactivity of Its Rocks Could Be Enough to Sustain Microbes

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A study published in January 2026 in Nature Communications estimates that the bottom of the ocean of Europe, Jupiter’s icy moon, is now practically immobile. Without active faults and hydrothermal sources, one of the classic ways to feed life in that hidden sea is greatly weakened. A NASA scientist poses another possibility: that the decay of uranium and potassium from rocks, dissolved in water, breaks water molecules and leaves enough chemical …