Researchers linked to Washington State University proposed in 2026 that salty, oxidant-rich ice on Europa’s surface could become dense and weak enough to detach and slowly sink through the moon’s ice shell — potentially carrying life-supporting chemistry down to the hidden ocean in as little as 30,000 years under the most favorable model conditions.

Researchers linked to Washington State University proposed in 2026 that salty, oxidant-rich ice on Europa’s surface could become dense and weak enough to detach and slowly sink through the moon’s ice shell — potentially carrying life-supporting chemistry down to the hidden ocean in as little as 30,000 years under the most favorable model conditions.

Europa’s habitability problem has always had two directions. The moon likely has a deep ocean beneath its ice shell, but the chemistry that might help life is not produced only in that ocean. Some of it may be made at the surface, where Jupiter’s radiation breaks and reshapes molecules in the ice. That creates a difficult question. If oxidants and other reactive chemicals are made near the surface, how do they reach the hidden ocean below? Europ…