The Jupiter moon Europa is one of the most likely places to find life outside the Earth. Europa is a stupendous world of ice; its entire surface is covered by a thick ice shell several kilometers deep. The American Jet Propulsion Laboratory has now for the first time offered solid scientific evidence showing that there is a 100km deep saltwater ocean under the ice shell. It is now supposed that this distant satellite of Jupiter holds more than twice the amount of water than the Earth. There’s also a high probability that Europa has the right preconditions for life. Scientists made this discovery in a region known as a “chaos terrain". This is a weird looking area scattered with huge mountains of ice at some points of which the subterranean ocean has found its way to the surface. As there is no atmosphere to Europa, the water turns directly to ice and steam when it hits the vacuum on the surface.

The work “europa” visualizes the surface of the Jupiter moon Europa. The visual composition – very much inspired by German painter Caspar David Friedrich – fuses landscape portraits photographed in a glacier region of Iceland with images of the surface of the Europa moon taken by the flyby Galileo space probe. The work also conveys humankind’s irrepressible urge to discover new worlds and to learn more about the origins of human life.