The Europa Clipper spacecraft went into space to study whether Jupiter’s moon Europa has habitable conditions. This was reported by the NASA press service.
The probe was launched using a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. Europa Clipper departed from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The launch was initially scheduled for October 10, but was postponed due to the effects of Hurricane Milton.
The device will have to travel approximately 2.9 billion kilometers to enter Jupiter’s orbit in April 2030. The spacecraft will begin its scientific flights around Europa in 2031. The probe is equipped, as NASA points out, with the instrument suite most sophisticated science the agency has ever sent to Jupiter, including radars, cameras and a heat-measuring instrument.
The three main scientific objectives of the Europa Clipper are to determine the thickness of the satellite’s ice sheet and to study the composition and geology of the subglacial ocean.
“If the mission determines that Europa is habitable, it could mean that there are more habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond than previously thought.” – says the message.
Europa is the planet’s sixth most distant moon of Jupiter and has long been considered one of the most habitable places in the solar system (not counting Earth). NASA’s Juno mission conducted a detailed study of it for the first time in history in 2024. The results showed that Europa’s icy surface contains less oxygen than previously thought.
This finding does not refute the possibility of finding microbial life on Europa. Data from the Galileo mission showed that there is water beneath the moon’s icy surface. It is approximately twice as large as Earth’s oceans.
The ocean floor in Europe is in contact with rocks. A device of this type allows chemical interactions to occur that produce energy. This makes Jupiter’s satellite the main candidate for the existence of life, RBC reminds.
