{"id":9015,"date":"2024-10-15T15:30:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T15:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/15\/europa-clipper-nasa-spacecraft-blasts-off-to-study-whether-jupiter-moon-can-support-life\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T15:30:05","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T15:30:05","slug":"europa-clipper-nasa-spacecraft-blasts-off-to-study-whether-jupiter-moon-can-support-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/15\/europa-clipper-nasa-spacecraft-blasts-off-to-study-whether-jupiter-moon-can-support-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Europa Clipper: NASA spacecraft blasts off to study whether Jupiter moon can support life"},"content":{"rendered":"

A NASA spacecraft has launched from Florida on a mission to establish whether Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could support life.<\/p>\n

The craft, called Europa Clipper, was on a SpaceX<\/strong> Falcon Heavy rocket which blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral under sunny skies.<\/p>\n

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Its launch had been delayed for several days by the deadly Hurricane Milton<\/strong> that struck the US state last week.<\/p>\n

The mission’s main scientific goal is to establish whether there are places below the surface of the moon that can harbour life.<\/p>\n

Scientists are interested in the salty liquid water ocean, 40-100 miles deep, that previous observations have shown is under Europa’s thick 10-15 mile icy shell. And where there is water, there could be life.<\/p>\n

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The robotic solar-powered spacecraft, that is carrying nine scientific instruments, will travel 1.8 billion miles in a trip lasting about five and a half years and is due to enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030.<\/p>\n

It will carry out 49 close flybys of Europa over three years, gathering detailed measurements to investigate the moon.<\/p>\n

The probe, which is about as large as a basketball court, will fly as low as 16 miles above the surface, soaring over a different location during each flyby to scan nearly the entire moon.<\/p>\n

It will not look for life but will focus on the ingredients necessary to sustain life – searching for organic compounds and other clues as it uses radar to peer beneath the ice for suitable conditions.<\/p>\n

Europa Clipper, which is around 30m long and 17m wide with its antennas and solar panels – and weighs nearly six tonnes, is the largest spacecraft the US space agency has ever built for a planetary mission.<\/p>\n

Its solar panels will gather sunlight for powering scientific instruments, electronics and its other subsystems in the \u00a33.9bn mission.<\/p>\n

The moon has been viewed as a potential habitat for life beyond Earth in our solar system.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/strong> said: “The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology.”<\/p>\n

“The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet,” the agency added.<\/p>\n

Europa, with a diameter of nearly 2,000 miles, is the fourth-largest of Jupiter’s 95 officially-recognised moons.<\/p>\n

Even though it is just a quarter of Earth’s diameter, its vast global ocean of salty liquid water may contain twice the water that is in Earth’s oceans.<\/p>\n

The mission’s deputy project scientist Bonnie Buratti said: “There is very strong evidence that the ingredients for life exist on Europa. But we have to go there to find out.”<\/p>\n

The planetary scientist, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, added: “Just to emphasise: we’re not a life-detection mission. We’re just looking for the conditions for life.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n

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