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A NASA image of Europa shows suspected plumes of water vapor erupting at the bottom left. (Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images)

There is extensive evidence that on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, plumes of water vapor erupt. The Cassini spacecraft has even flown through the plumes and observed what they're made of.

Why is NASA so excited about plumes on Europa?

With a liquid ocean, even if it is well below the surface, primitive life might exist. But even if a probe and lander was sent to Europe, it wouldn't be able to drill through the ice down to the ocean. So the water couldn't be tested. However, samples could be taken on the surface if water is breaking through the surface and sending vapor into space.

Jupiter's Europa from spacecraft Galileo

Image Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA

The moon is not only dirty but cracked. But it seems that oceans exist under Europa's fractured ice-plains and they could support life.