Europa.
The icy moon of Jupiter.
A frigid world that would turn you
into an astronaut popsicle.
And an atmosphere
that would take your breath away.
Literally.
Because Europa's atmosphere
is so thin, it's almost nonexistent.
And while it's mostly
made up of oxygen,
this oxygen
isn't breathable for you.
You just wouldn't
be able to inhale it
in this extremely low
pressure environment.
And this frozen world
has a dark secret.
Deep under its thick crust of ice,
it might just hide life.
That's why
we're sending a member of our team
on a mission to explore Europa
and find out
if anything can survive
in this unforgiving environment.
Chase, we need you on this
one-way trip to Jupiter's neighborhood.
Mission Control,
this is Chase.
Orbiting Europa
and ready for landing.
Did you know it would actually
take you, like,
six years to get here from Earth?
But luckily, I'm already here.
And I love finding
new alien buddies,
when they're not trying to kill me.
All right, Chase.
Initiate the landing sequence.
Already on it.
RICO, start the landing sequence,
I totally forgot.
Landing sequence initiated.
500 m (1,640 ft) and descending.
400 m (1,300 ft).
100 m (330 ft).
Touchdown confirmed.
Oh, that's right.
It's bright.
Oh, my eyeballs.
That's strange.
Europa is five times
farther from the Sun than Earth,
and gets much less sunlight
than we do.
It must be so bright
because of Europa's icy surface.
All that ice is highly reflective.
That, plus an almost absent
atmosphere,
could make the light
feel very harsh.
So just use
the protective tinted visor
and your eyes will be fine.
Chase, what's your status?
Yeah, I'd say
Europa is pretty similar to Earth.
If Earth had no atmosphere,
was covered in ice
and had absolutely
no interesting oceans to see.
So in short, it sucks,
What If guy.
I'm freezing out here.
Yeah,
you'd need an advanced
thermal insulation layer
in your suit to keep you warm.
The surface temperature on Europa
is about -145 °C (-230 °F).
And it can get as cold as -220 °C (-364 °F).
It's also bathed in radiation.
That's because Europa orbits
so close to Jupiter.
And Jupiter has a massive
magnetic field
that traps a lot of high-energy
particles inside it.
Your spacesuit
would need to be able
to withstand that too.
Great.
Europa is one of the four
largest moons of Jupiter.
It's still slightly
smaller than our Moon,
but it's a lot more exciting.
Mainly because
it has the potential to host life.
Looks pretty lifeless,
if you ask me.
Well, it is, on the surface.
Look, life needs three ingredients
to exist on any world.
The first one is liquid water.
Well, Europa has plenty of that.
NASA's Galileo spacecraft,
which spent
eight years orbiting Jupiter,
gathered some data on Europa, too.
And that data
led scientists to believe
that this moon
has twice as much water
as all of Earth's oceans.
Well, I regret to report
that your scientists’ data is wrong.
I don't see no water, only ice.
This mission
is a waste of my precious time.
No, no, no, it isn't.
You don't see them
because these enormous oceans
aren't on the surface.
They're deep below
Europa's thick, icy crust.
That brings us to another
ingredient for life.
Energy.
On Earth, life
mostly gets energy from the Sun.
But that's not the case on Europa.
First of all,
because Europa is so far away
from the Sun.
And secondly,
because if there is life on Europa,
it's likely we'd find it
under the ice where there's
no sunlight at all.
Europa gets its energy
from the effects of tidal heating.
And it has Jupiter
to thank for that.
Yeah,
the enormous gravity
of the Solar System's
biggest planet is constantly
pulling on Europa,
bulging and cracking its ice.
This causes friction,
and the friction heats
this moon from the inside.
That's why Europa's subsurface
ocean doesn't freeze over
like the rest of this frigid world.
Europa might also have
hydrothermal vents
on its ocean floor,
just like Earth does.
These vents
spew out heat, energy
and chemicals,
potentially creating a habitable
environment around them.
The last ingredient for life
is chemical elements.
Most living
things are made up of stuff
like carbon, hydrogen,
nitrogen, oxygen,
phosphorus and sulfur.
And based on the data
we collected about Europa,
this moon's got all that.
But of course,
no one has ever been on Europa
to confirm this.
Until now.
And what's that?
Yeah, those are Europa's
famous cryovolcanoes.
These volcanoes
don't erupt with lava,
but with water and ice.
Ice volcanoes?
That’s sick! Oh my god.
Okay, okay.
So how do you suggest
I find life here?
This ice looks thick.
Yeah, you'd have to drill through it.
And you'd need special equipment.
Like a high-performance drill
drill designed for extreme cold,
electrically powered
by a portable nuclear generator,
lightweight with a heating mechanism
and a sample retrieval system.
Right, great.
So just like the everyday stuff
that you would just happen
to carry around with you
on your spaceship.
No, I'm serious.
I happen to
have that on my spaceship.
I have the best
drill in the Universe.
I'm so excited to meet
who's down here.
Hold on.
The chances
of seeing any kind of life
with your own eyes are slim.
Because that life,
if it exists, is likely microscopic.
But if you get a sample
of that salty water, well,
you can examine it
and maybe find traces
of microorganisms.
Eh, that's not
how I pictured this mission.
But since we're here,
let's do this.
While you can't improve the odds
of seeing aliens on Europa,
you can increase your opportunity
of seeing more of Chase's
epic adventures on What If.
We've already traveled with him
to Titan, Venus, even Uranus.
And there's so much more
we want to show you.
That's why we launched our
What If Explorers Club on Patreon.
That's where we’ll give you
the top secret behind the scenes,
extended director's cuts,
mind-blowing art,
epic merch discounts
and our endless love and gratitude.
Support us on Patreon to get
exclusive content
and help us send Chase to his death.
Over, and over, and over again.
Hey!
I don’t feel so good.
I think I might puke.
Your body temperature is rising.
You're experiencing
the symptoms
of radiation poisoning.
I did warn you
that radiation levels on Europa
are high.
Even in your spacesuit,
you'd still feel headaches,
nausea, dizziness,
all the fun that comes
from radiation sickness.
And all that
after spending only
a few hours on this moon.
If you don't
return to your shielded
spacecraft immediately,
this exposure will kill you.
Huh?
Oh, no, no, I'm fine.
No, I'm good, RICO.
I just need to lie down
for five minutes.
That's a bad idea.
You need to return the samples
to the spaceship.
Right, the samples.
I have to get the samples...
This is still so sick though.
The impact force
from the cryovolcano
has damaged your spacesuit.
You're losing oxygen.
I should have subscribed
to the top tier of What If’s Patreon.
In the extreme
conditions of Europa,
without the full protection of a suit,
you'd only have a few minutes
to get to safety.
In just one minute,
severe frostbite
would damage your exposed skin.
After two minutes,
you'd start shivering.
Cue hypothermia.
Another 10 minutes later,
and you'd lose consciousness
and freeze to death.
Oh, wait.
Scratch all that.
Looks like Chase's suit
lost all the oxygen
and he just suffocated.
Now we'll never know
if those samples
had any life in them.
Yeah, we'll have to try
this search for life again.
Maybe next time
Chase can set up a base first
before going out there
and exploring things.
But that's a story
for another
WHAT IF.