Shards of pure ice might snow upwards beneath the ice shell of Europa

The moons Europa and Enceladus probably have global oceans buried beneath their frozen shells, and those seas may be home to a strange kind of ice called frazil ice

By Leah Crane

Beneath the frozen shell of Europa, flakes of ice may float upwards like strange underwater snow. The sparkling landscape formed by this process on the underside of the shell could be a favourable environment for alien life.

On Earth, the ice shelves in Antarctica are the closest analogue to the ice shells of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, which are both thought to host global oceans beneath their frozen surfaces. There are two types of ice in the …