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NORTON - Wheaton College is headed into a new universe.

Wheaton assistant professor of physics Jason Goodman has received a five-year, roughly $200,000 NASA Astrobiology Institute grant that will shape the next mission to Jupiter's moon Europa.

Goodman said that he and Jet Propulsion Laboratory planetary geophysicist Steve Vance will look at different pieces of the same puzzle.

Goodman will develop physics computer and laboratory simulations and models of water flow based Vance's research on the ocean chemistry of Europa and other moons in the icy planets of the outer solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Associate professor of geology Geoff Collins, who is serving as an unfunded adviser, has been looking from the top - the miles of icy surface above those oceans - down. Overall, the grant is funding the work of a 47-member NAI-JPL research team.

Although Wheaton has an astronomy department, and an observatory, the NASA research is new territory for the college, Goodman said.

"It's nice to be able to get Wheaton more involved in this stuff," he said.

NASA plans to launch its next probes to Jupiter and its moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto in 2020, according to the agency's Web site. The probes would arrive in 2026 and "spend at least three years conducting research," the agency said.

Collins, whose work was not funded, said the five-year research project will shape the mission's design.

"It means that when NASA is building that mission, they have to figure in what Jason and Steve" did, he said.

Collins and Goodman have collaborated on research before.

"It's sort of a totally new field, to be thinking about oceans and the planetary sciences," Collins said, adding that he has a number of ongoing research projects related to this.

Goodman said the grant will fund a salary for him to do this research; stipends for one or two Wheaton undergraduate assistants; and money to send students to major scientific conferences to present their research.

Wheaton will get $30,000 the first year. Goodman said that by year five, he hopes to have a "much better idea of how the ocean currents move and flow in these strange new oceans."

Europa is "one of the few places in the solar system where water exists," he said.

"This is not necessarily looking for aliens. But it's a big question: is the Earth the only place life exists?" Goodman said.

MICHAEL GELBWASSER covers Norton for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.