Introduction
This page showcases our resources for those interested in learning more about ocean worlds. It includes activities that can be done at home as well as videos, animations, stories, and articles.
HighlightsHighlights
Videos & Animations
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Are there oceans on other worlds? Yes! Earth is not alone. When you look deeper into our solar system, there are worlds we suspect have oceans hidden beneath their icy surfaces.
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Life as we know it requires three ingredients: energy, organic molecules, and liquid water. Our search for life beyond Earth is a search for planets, dwarf planets, and moons that harbor substantial liquid water. Learn more about these places we call “ocean worlds.”
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Our planet is a beautiful water-filled world, teeming with life. But did you know that Earth is not the only world in our solar system with an ocean? Here’s what you need to know about Ocean Worlds.
EUROPA
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Space Shorts: Could Jupiter’s Moon Europa Have an Ocean?
Find out why scientists think Jupiter’s moon Europa might have twice as much water as Earth in this 60-second space short!
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Scientists think there is an ocean within Jupiter’s moon Europa. Discover why scientists are so excited about the potential of this ice-covered world to answer one of humanity’s most profound questions – is there life beyond Earth?
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope observations of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa have revealed the presence of persistent water vapor — but, mysteriously, only in one hemisphere.
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Learn about the detection of water vapor on Jupiter’s moon, Europa.
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Discover NASA’s plans for a robotic mission to explore Europa and to investigate its habitability, employing a highly capable suite of remote sensing and in situ instruments on a spacecraft that will make multiple close flybys of this moon of Jupiter.
TITAN
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In May 2022, engineers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory returned to Imperial Dunes, California, to send a test model of Dragonfly through the skies to collect additional data that will help them develop guidance, control, and navigation algorithms for the actual Dragonfly spacecraft.
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Learn about the Dragonfly mission to Titan: How we’ll get there, what we’ll do there, and how it could teach us about the building blocks of life.
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Before the actual Dragonfly soars over the organic dunes of Titan, discover how the team developing the NASA rotorcraft lander at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is testing the concept by sending instrumented models over the sands of Earth’s deserts.
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Dragonfly is a NASA mission to explore the chemistry and habitability of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Dragonfly will send an autonomously operated rotorcraft to visit dozens of sites on Titan, investigating the moon’s surface and shallow subsurface for organic molecules and possible biosignatures. Explore these animations to learn more about Dragonfly and its various instruments.
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Discover how Dragonfly’s suite of science instruments will investigate the chemistry and habitability of Titan.
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Learn about how Saturn’s moon, Titan, is expanding our understanding of the chemical complexity of the solar system and the potential for life in the universe.
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Experience Dragonfly, NASA’s revolutionary new mission to Titan, in this video trailer.
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Search this gallery for videos, animations, images, and illustrations of the Dragonfly mission to Titan.
Activities
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Exploring the Universe: Ice Orbs
Learn how NASA planetary scientists are probing ocean worlds in the outer solar system, searching for evidence of liquid water and possible signs of life beneath the icy surface. Put what you learn into practice by investigating a frozen sphere using various tools to learn about objects hidden inside.
This activity can be adapted to include other tools and probes, whatever you may already have on hand.
Note: This activity is also available in Spanish.
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Planetary (Egg) Wobble and Newton’s First Law
By observing the motions of spinning eggs, you will learn how to determine which are raw and which are hard-boiled. You can then use what you learn to discover how scientists conclude whether the center of a planetary body is liquid or solid.
In this activity, the raw egg can be compared to an ocean world while the hard-boiled egg can be compared to a solid planetary body.
Note: This activity was made for NASA’s InSight mission to Mars but can be adapted to discuss ocean worlds.
Stories
1. Ocean World Diversity (No Two Are the Same!)
Enceladus
Tiny moon (313.3 miles or 504.2 kilometers), about as wide as Arizona!
Titan
Titan is believed to have a salty subsurface ocean – as salty as the Dead Sea on Earth – beginning about 30 miles (50 kilometers) below its ice shell.
Europa
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will conduct a detailed survey of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, to determine whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.
Ganymede
Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system (similar in size to the planet Mercury) and is the only moon with its own magnetic field.
Triton
Triton, a moon of Neptune, was the first place in the solar system where scientists found cryovolcanoes, ice volcanoes that spew out plumes of water-ice and other frozen molecules rather than molten rock.
2. Ocean Worlds and Astrobiology
Ocean Worlds May Harbor Life!
Did you know that there are other objects in our solar system (besides Earth!) that are considered “ocean worlds” and that these worlds have the potential to harbor life?
Where We Look
Key places to find potential life is at two different boundaries/layers: an ice-liquid ocean boundary and/or a rock-liquid ocean boundary.
Planetary Ingredients for Life
Water, essential elements, chemical energy, stability
Astrobiology Resources
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The Europa Clipper mission will use four large reaction wheels to help keep it oriented during the spacecraft’s study of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
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Observations from the Juno spacecraft’s pass of Europa on Sept. 29, 2022, provided the first close-up in over two decades of this ocean world, resulting in remarkable imagery and unique science.
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The main body of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft was delivered to the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in June 2022. Engineers and technicians will finish assembling the craft by hand before testing it to make sure it can withstand the journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa before it launches in 2024.
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Parallel ice ridges, a common feature on Jupiter’s moon Europa, are found on Greenland’s ice sheet – and could bode well for Europa’s potential habitability.
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Finding water plumes at Europa is an exciting prospect, but scientists warn it’ll be tricky, even from up close.
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Jupiter’s moon Europa and its global ocean may currently have conditions suitable for life. Scientists are studying processes on the icy surface as they prepare to explore.
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NASA is exploring the solar system and beyond to help us answer fundamental questions about life beyond our home planet.
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Advancing our search for the building blocks of life, the Dragonfly mission will fly multiple sorties to sample and examine sites around Saturn’s icy moon, Titan.
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Discover how research on nine craters of Titan has provided more details about how weathering affects the evolution of the moon’s surface – and what lies beneath.
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NASA scientists identified a molecule in Titan’s atmosphere that has never been detected in any other atmosphere. In fact, many chemists have probably barely heard of it or know how to pronounce it: cyclopropenylidene, or C3H2. Scientists say that this simple carbon-based molecule may be a precursor to more complex compounds that could form or feed possible life on Titan.
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Learn why NASA is preparing to send the drone-like spacecraft Dragonfly to delve deeper into Titan, a world that has become one of the most important targets of exploration.
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Volcanoes expose the pulse of many planets and moons, offering clues to how these bodies evolved from chemical soups to the complex systems of gases and rocks we see today. Unearthing these clues is what motivates planetary scientists to venture to such inhospitable places on Earth as smoldering lava fields and glacier-covered volcanoes.
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Research and computer modeling show that volcanic activity may have occurred on the seafloor of Jupiter’s moon Europa in the recent past – and may still be happening. NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission will swoop close to the icy moon and collect measurements that may shed light on these findings.
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This graphic history’s issue #4 focuses on astrobiology and missions to the outer solar system.
3. Are Planets with Oceans Common in the Galaxy? It’s Likely, NASA Scientists Find
Exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system, might resemble some of the watery moons around Jupiter and Saturn.
Other ResourcesOther Resources
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In our solar system, there is an ocean twice the size of all Earth’s oceans combined, and it’s found on Europa. Learn more about it in this infographic.
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Learn more about Europa with this colorful infographic.
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Download your own Europa Clipper poster, desktop background, or mobile wallpaper.
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Learn how scientists use Earth as a test lab for other worlds.
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This gallery shows field research sites on Earth side-by-side with similar environments on other worlds. Pairs like these are called planetary analogs. Research at analog locations on Earth helps scientists to make sense of our solar system.
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NASA’s Solar System Treks
The Solar System Treks are online, browser-based portals that allow you to visualize, explore, and analyze the surfaces of other worlds using real data returned from a growing fleet of spacecraft. You can view the worlds through the eyes of many different instruments, pilot real-time 3D flyovers above mountains and into craters, and conduct measurements of surface features.
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Learn about ocean worlds and their potential for harboring life in this handout.
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Flip through this slideshow to see what we know about ocean worlds in our solar system.