What possibilities are there? Aboard a powerful SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, the Europa Clipper probe took off on October 14 from Cape Canaveral, in the state of Florida. Travel to explore the mysteries of Europa, Jupiter’s oceanic moon, reported the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The search for life on Jupiter will begin.
According to the agency, the mission will not only search for signs of life. It will also try to find signs of habitability in the natural satellite.
Life beyond
“Europe is one of the most promising places for the search for life beyond Earth.” A NASA official, Gina DiBraccio, said this at a press conference.
As for the probe, it is the largest designed by NASA for interplanetary exploration. It is 30 meters long with its solar panels extended. They were designed to capture the weak light on the way to the star.
In addition, Europa Clipper carries with it various ultra-sophisticated instruments. It includes cameras, spectrographs, radars and a magnetometer. «It is an opportunity for us. “We can explore not a world that might have been habitable billions of years ago, but one that might be habitable right now.” This was said by scientist Curt Niebur, who is in charge of the scientific part of the mission.
In that sense, the mission has the purpose of determining the structure and composition of the frozen surface of the moon. Also its depth and even the salinity of a possible ocean. Why is this necessary? To find out if Europa has the three ingredients necessary for life as we know it on Earth. Water, energy and some chemical compounds.
long trip
Thus, if these ingredients were present, NASA experts maintain that life could exist in the ocean in the form of primitive bacteria. However, the mission’s deputy scientist, Bonnie Buratti, explained that they will be deep in the water, without the probe being able to see it.
And if it’s not habitable, that would also open up interesting questions for scientists. For example, “why do we think that and why isn’t it there?” said Nikki Fox, associate administrator at NASA. The mission to search for life on Jupiter will travel 2.9 billion kilometers. Upon arrival, it will spend four years performing 49 flybys about 25 kilometers from the surface of the natural satellite.
