NASA sends a space mission to Jupiter’s moon in search of life | Space news

The Europa Clipper is headed to Jupiter’s moon Europa, where it is believed to have an ocean beneath the surface.

The Europa Clipper spacecraft is on a nearly six-year, 3 billion-kilometer (1.8 billion-mile) mission to test whether conditions on Jupiter’s moon can support life in what scientists believe may be a deep ocean hidden beneath its icy surface .

The spacecraft launched Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from a NASA facility on Florida’s east coast.

The launch was delayed for several days due to Hurricane Milton, which hit the launch site in Florida.

The launch also came a day after SpaceX launched its fifth Starship test flight from Texas and brought the rocket’s booster to land for the first time.

Europe’s hidden ocean

Europa is one of Jupiter’s 95 known moons, and scientists believe it may have an ocean up to 120 kilometers (80 miles) deep, hidden beneath the thick ice covering its surface.

In 2013, the Hubble Space Telescope observed what appeared to be geysers erupting from the surface of Europa, the largest of Jupiter’s 95 known moons, discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in the early 17th century.

Now scientists want to take a closer look at what thermal vents on the ocean floor might be. These holes could potentially support life and provide a powerful source of energy.

“This is a chance for us to explore not a world that was habitable billions of years ago, but a world that would be habitable today — right now,” program scientist Curt Niebur told The Associated Press.

The Europa Clipper is equipped with massive solar panels, making it the largest spacecraft built by NASA to explore another planet. It is about the size of a basketball court and has a budget of $5.2 billion.

Take a closer look

This is not NASA’s first mission to Jupiter, but it is claimed to be the first mission to conduct a detailed study of Europa. The spacecraft will fly closer than previous missions, to a distance of about 25 kilometers (nearly 16 miles).

After circling Jupiter, it will make 49 close flybys of Europa before ending its mission in 2034 with a planned impact on Ganymede, another of Jupiter’s moons.

In the 1970s, the Pioneer spacecraft and two Voyager missions provided the first detailed long-range images of Europa.

Since then, NASA’s Galileo and Juno spacecraft have also come close enough to take photos of the moon.

The spacecraft is equipped with nine scientific instruments, including a radar that allows observation under the ice and cameras that will map virtually the entire Moon.

Among the challenges Clipper faces in reaching Europa is flying through Jupiter’s radiation bands, which requires special protection for the instrument’s controls, which are shielded by thick walls of aluminum and zinc.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Juice spacecraft, launched last year, is also headed to Jupiter.