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NASA Launches Europa Clipper To Probe Jupiter's Icy Moon for Signs of Life
Monday October 14, 2024. 06:17 PM , from Slashdot
Europa Clipper, NASA's largest-ever interplanetary craft, weighs 12,500 pounds and boasts solar panels spanning 100 feet. Its nine scientific instruments will study Europa's surface and interior in unprecedented detail. After a 1.8 billion-mile journey, the spacecraft will reach Jupiter in April 2030. It will then conduct 49 flybys of Europa over four years, coming within 16 miles of the moon's surface. Scientists believe Europa's subsurface ocean could contain twice as much water as Earth's oceans. The mission will measure ocean depth, analyze surface compounds, and map Europa's magnetic field to gather clues about its internal composition. Instruments will search for warm spots indicating thin ice, potential cryovolcanoes, and plumes of water vapor. The spacecraft will also attempt to identify carbon-based molecules that could serve as building blocks for life. 'Europa is certainly the most likely place for life beyond Earth in our solar system,' Robert Pappalardo, Europa Clipper project scientist, told the New York Times. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/10/14/1617211/nasa-launches-europa-clipper-to-probe-jupiters-i...
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