During June, NASA, NOAA, and people around the world are celebrating Earth’s Ocean as part of? National Ocean Month . NASA has been observing Earth's ocean from space for more than 20 years. Now, NASA is launching missions to explore other ocean worlds.
The story of oceans is the story of life.
Life as we know it requires three ingredients: energy, organic molecules, and liquid water. Our search for life beyond Earth is, in part, a search for planets and moons that harbor substantial liquid water. We call these places “ocean worlds,” and we’re learning that they could be ubiquitous in the galaxy.
As we learn more about our own ocean, we better understand these worlds beyond Earth. NASA has missions planned to explore two ocean moons.
NASA's Europa Clipper is launching Oct. 10, 2024, on the first mission to conduct a detailed science investigation of Jupiter's moon Europa. Scientists predict Europa has a salty ocean beneath its icy crust that could hold the building blocks necessary to sustain life.
Making multiple flights, the Dragonfly rotorcraft will explore a variety of locations on Saturn's moon Titan. Titan’s abundant complex carbon-rich chemistry, interior ocean, and past presence of liquid water on the surface make it an ideal destination to study prebiotic chemical processes and the potential habitability of an extraterrestrial environment.
Europa is the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 moons. Scientists believe it has a saltwater ocean beneath its icy shell, holding twice as much water as Earth's global ocean.
Saturn’s largest moon Titan has liquids like methane and ethane flowing on its surface. Beneath Titan’s thick crust of water ice is more liquid?an ocean primarily of water.
Saturn’s moon Enceladus is a small, icy world that has geyser-like jets spewing water vapor and ice particles into space.
Jupiter’s icy moon Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system. There’s strong evidence Ganymede has an underground saltwater ocean?that may hold more water than all the water on Earth's surface.?
Once thought to be a dead world, data gathered by NASA's Galileo spacecraft indicates Callisto may have a salty ocean beneath its icy surface.
Explore a collection of ocean world resources, including activities, videos, animations, printable graphics, and online interactives.
The story of oceans is the story of life. Life as we know it requires three ingredients: energy, organic molecules,…
The ice-covered Jovian moon generates 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours ? enough to keep a million humans breathing…
Learn about Earth's ocean with our immersive real-time 3D web-based Eyes on Earth app. Monitor sea level, sea surface temperature and more.
Our solar system has eight planets, and five dwarf planets.
More than 1.3 million asteroids, and about 3,900 comets are in our solar system.
Our solar system has more than 200 moons.
Our solar system is in one of the Milky Way galaxy’s four spiral arms.
Our solar system takes about 230 million years to orbit the galactic center.
The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy.
Our solar system has many worlds with many types of atmospheres.
The four giant planets ? and at least one asteroid ? have rings.
More than 300 robotic spacecraft have left Earth's orbit, and 24 U.S. astronauts have traveled to the Moon.
So far, Earth is the only place we've found life in our solar system.
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