Europa and Astrobiology Education Resources

Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, is a promising candidate in the search for life beyond Earth. Later this year, NASA’s Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch with one overarching mission: To determine if Europa, with its vast subsurface ocean, actually has conditions suitable for supporting life.

Over the years, TERC has created many different materials related to the search for life beyond Earth, including an entire Astrobiology curriculum, NASA Life on Earth … and Elsewhere? educator resource guide, and now, as part of the NSF-funded project UniVRsal Access, the Virtual Reality game Europa Prime.

View of Europa assembled from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft

View of Europa assembled from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute)

Scene of Europa’s surface with Jupiter in the sky from the STEM-based virtual reality game Europa Prime

Scene of Europa’s surface with Jupiter in the sky from the STEM-based virtual reality game Europa Prime (EdGE at TERC and MXTreality)

SEEC-Related Resources

Here is the set of Europa Prime educational activities and materials presented at the 2024 Space Exploration Educators Conference.

Alien life form, the Minos, around hydrothermal vents potentially found in the subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

A preliminary drawing by members of the UniVRsal Access co-design team showing colorful Minos, a cephalopod-like alien lifeform, swimming around hydrothermal vents in the subsurface ocean of Europa. Pairs with an image from the VR game developed as part of UniVRsal Access.

Initial design drawing by members of a neurodiverse co-design team (Daniel Lougen and Jamie Larsen, EdGE at TERC)

Art from the VR game Europa Prime showing colorful Minos, a cephalopod-like alien lifeform, swimming around hydrothermal vents in the subsurface ocean of Europa. Pairs with an preliminary drawing by members of the UniVRsal Access co-design process.

Art from the virtual reality game Europa Prime (EdGE at TERC and MXTreality)

Other Resources: NASA

Other Resources: NOAA

Other Resources