The machines that go explore the huge subsurface ocean, possibly existing on Jupiter's moon Europe will have to drill very, very deeply.

New research suggests that water can remain liquid near the surface of Europe only a few tens of thousands of years - a moment in comparison with the age of the Solar system.

Clara Kalusova from Nantes University (France) and Charles University (Czech Republic) came to the conclusion that if there was world ocean, it is relatively deep - approximately 25-50 km below the surface. It does not exclude the possibility that in some places the water is closer (say, at a depth of 5 km), but there it is several tens of thousands of years, and then goes into the depths of the satellite.

That Europe, the diameter of which is 3 100 km, has a giant ocean under the ice shell, many say. Although the surface of the satellite cold, heat generated in its innards attraction of Jupiter, it is enough to keep the water in the liquid state. According to some estimates, the bottom of the ocean can be located in 100 km frozen under the firmament.

Life on Earth can be found wherever there is water, so Europe and attracts researchers. However, it remains unknown how difficult it will be to reach the local ocean courageous automatic traveler. There are some scientists who suspect that the water only a few kilometers.

Ms. Kalusova conducted mathematical simulation of how the mixture of liquid water and solid ice behaves in certain conditions. It turned out that the differences in density and viscosity (and other measures)may cause water trapped near the surface of Europe, quickly seeping through the partially melted the ice down to the rest of the ocean.

Europe is not the only moon in the Solar system with an underground ocean. Other satellites of Jupiter, Callisto and Ganymede, are also considered as candidates for water reservoirs, like Saturn's moon Enceladus. Ms. Kalusova notes that its research is useful for understanding and these worlds, as well as Titanium giant moon of Saturn, with its weather system based on hydrocarbons. Like Europe, the first geologically active, and on Titan too, processes, linking its interior part with the surface.

The results of a study presented at the European Congress of science of planets in Madrid.

Based on the materials Space.Com.