Posted on by Mark Alexander

This is Exciting!

Artist's rendition of the surface of Europa, based on everything we know now.

There are a number of space missions scheduled for the future and they're all awesome, but there is ONE mission in particular that spaghettifies my mind with its gravitational pull more so than the rest. That is the Europa Clipper mission!

Onwards to Jupiter's water moon, Europa!!

What scientists think lurks beneath Europa's icy surface.

• The Europa Clipper mission will target the ice-encrusted moon of Jupiter, which is considered a prime target in the search for life beyond Earth.

• Below its icy shell, Europa is thought to hold a 170km-deep body of water that  could have the right conditions for biology.

• Due to launch in October 2024, let's hope we don't get a repeat of the ongoing James Webb Telescope delay.

• Europa Clipper will carry out an in-depth investigation of the watery world, including whether it can support life in its subsurface ocean.

• Gravitational interactions with Jupiter generate tidal forces and heat, which keeps Europa's ocean liquid. The heating may even drive volcanic vents on the seafloor; on Earth, such vent systems support a wide array of life forms.

The relative amount of water scientists think is under Europa's ice shell vs. the total amount of all the water on Earth.

2 Replies to “This is Exciting!”

    1. (a) They're not landing (yet).
      (b) That happened in an alternate timeline/parallel universe we're not a part of.

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