This illustration depicts the best-known candidates in our search for life in the solar system.

April 07, 2015

This illustration depicts the best-known candidates in our search for life in the solar system.

Earth isn't the only ocean world in our solar system. Oceans could exist in diverse forms on moons and dwarf planets, offering clues in the quest to discover life beyond our home planet.

NASA's robotic explorers are out there, traveling to these distant and uncharted ocean worlds.

- The Dawn spacecraft is orbiting Ceres, an intriguing dwarf planet.
- New Horizons is on approach for a dramatic flight past the dwarf planet Pluto this summer.
- The Cassini mission to Saturn is scheduled to soar so close to the moon Enceladus later this year that it will fly though geysers of water that could reveal secrets of its subsurface ocean.
- NASA's future water world explorer, a mission to the Jovian moon Europa, is taking shape in the minds of scientists and engineers.

For more information about NASA's exploration of the solar system and beyond, visit: http://www.nasa.gov and http://solarsystem.nasa.gov

Credits

NASA/JPL-Caltech

ENLARGE

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