{"id":229960,"date":"2026-01-28T01:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/nasas-juno-measures-thickness-of-europas-ice-shell"},"modified":"2026-01-28T01:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:25:14","slug":"nasas-juno-measures-thickness-of-europas-ice-shell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/nasas-juno-measures-thickness-of-europas-ice-shell","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Juno measures thickness of Europa\u2019s ice shell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/nasas-juno-measures-thickness-of-europas-ice-shell.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Data from NASA\u2019s Juno mission has provided new insights into the thickness and subsurface structure of the icy shell encasing Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa. Using the spacecraft\u2019s Microwave Radiometer (MWR), mission scientists determined that the shell averages about 18 miles (29 kilometers) thick in the region observed during Juno\u2019s 2022 flyby of Europa. The Juno measurement is the first to discriminate between thin and thick shell models that have suggested the ice shell is anywhere from less than half a mile to tens of miles thick.<\/p>\n<p>Slightly smaller than Earth\u2019s moon, Europa is one of the solar system\u2019s highest-priority science targets for investigating habitability. Evidence suggests that the ingredients for life may exist in the saltwater ocean that lies beneath its ice shell. Uncovering a variety of characteristics of the ice shell, including its thickness, provides crucial pieces of the puzzle for understanding the moon\u2019s internal workings and the potential for the existence of a habitable environment.<\/p>\n<p>The new estimate on the ice thickness in the near-surface icy crust was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41550-025-02718-0\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> on Dec. 17 in the journal Nature Astronomy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Data from NASA\u2019s Juno mission has provided new insights into the thickness and subsurface structure of the icy shell encasing Jupiter\u2019s moon Europa. Using the spacecraft\u2019s Microwave Radiometer (MWR), mission scientists determined that the shell averages about 18 miles (29 kilometers) thick in the region observed during Juno\u2019s 2022 flyby of Europa. The Juno measurement [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}