# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CtSFT7xLmbw
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/7178109-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/8e1ddcbadf.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-06-09T20:11:02.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

An ocean of possibility 🌊⁣
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Jupiter’s moon Europa may be the best place in the solar system to find environments suitable for life, apart from Earth. Slightly smaller than our Moon, Europa is mainly covered in a thick shell of water ice hiding a massive ocean which scientists speculate comes in contact with a rocky mantle, similar to Earth. Our Europa Clipper spacecraft is targeted to launch in October 2024, set to travel five-and-a-half years before exploring the moon's capacity to harbor the ingredients for life.⁣
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Captured by our Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s, this image has been more recently reprocessed to represent what a human would see, depicting the moon’s icy exterior with its long linear cracks and ridges that could be the result of the turbulent ocean below. The color variations depict different concentrations of ice and other materials; white and blue areas contain relatively pure water ice, while red and brown areas possibly include sulfur, salts, and other non-ice components.⁣
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Image description: Half of Europa’s surface is visible with marred and cracked red-brown streaks creating many patterns across its icy shell, which appears white and blue.⁣
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute⁣
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#Europa #NASA #Jupiter #Moon #SolarSystem

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## Credits

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## Tags

jupiter, europa, nasa, moon, solarsystem

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