According to the European Space Agency (ESA), cited by AFP, the Juice space probe managed to pass between the Moon and the Earth, a delicate maneuver to gain momentum and launch itself to Jupiter.
The probe, which was launched into space in April, passed close to the Moon on August 19, flying over Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, at an altitude of less than 7,000 km.
The operation involves approaching a celestial body to take advantage of its gravitational pull, a natural force that allows the probe’s path to be deflected and change its speed, speed up or deceive.
The Ariane 5 rocket, which sent Juice into space, was not powerful enough to move the probe to the solar system, about 800 million km from Earth.
Several space missions have already used this method, known as gravity support, but the moon flight together with the Earth was “a world first”, clarifies the ESA.
This maneuver caused the probe to accelerate slightly as it passed close to the Moon, before slowing close to Earth and changing course to Venus, where it will arrive in 2025.
It will then return to Earth to make two more flybys in 2026 and 2029, before finally reaching Jupiter in July 2031.
Juice will make it possible to look at the frozen moons of the orange planet – Europa, Ganymede and Callisto – as well as to test the instruments of the study that will be used for this purpose.
At the same time, this activity allows us to understand which environments are suitable for the presence of extraterrestrial life.
The Moon-Earth move, however, was only made after experts introduced minor corrections to the trajectory in the month of July.
2024-08-21 12:30:01
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