Key Points
If we can find out for certain, it could be a game changer in our quest to determine if we are alone.. Europa is the first ocean world, besides Earth, that we discovered in our solar system, says Jonathan Lunine, the chief scientist of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California..
The spacecraft will take nearly six years to reach Jupiter in April 2030, a distance of some 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers), overtaking a European spacecraft called JUICE in the process that is also on its way to Jupiter to study its other icy moons, including Ganymede, the solar systems largest moon..
These tidal forces appear to have melted some of the ice below Europas frozen surface, giving it a suspected vast ocean that surrounds its entire core, first hinted at in magnetic field data collected by NASAs Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003..
The spacecraft will study the gravity of Europa to work out its internal structure, and will also look for evidence of salt in the ocean by measuring magnetic fields near Europa; salinity would increase the oceans electrical conductivity and change the behavior of Jupiters magnetic field around the moon...
Slated to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket later this year from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy, Europa Clipper will help determine if conditions exist below the surface Jupiters fourth largest moon, Europa that could support life.NASA/Kim.
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