United States of America: On September 29, NASA’s Juno spacecraft will approach Jupiter’s moon Europa. The spacecraft has been studying Jupiter since 2016 and its closest approach is scheduled for 3:06 pm Indian Standard Time. It will approach the planet’s icy surface up to 358 kilometers. The last time scientists saw Europa with this closure was during Galileo The flight of the spacecraft, which occurs when it is about 350 kilometers above the surface.
Scientists aim to obtain important information about Europa that could be useful for future missions to the moon, most notably the Europa Clipper, which is scheduled to launch in 2024. Scott Bolton, principal investigator of the Juno mission, said from the Southwest Research Institute. In a statement that “Europe is an interesting Jovian moon, it is a target for future NASA missions”. ended, “We are excited to share data that can help the Europa Clipper team prepare for the mission and provide new scientific insights into this frozen planet.”
According to NASA, close-up observations of Juno will help the Europa Clipper mission, which predicts the new spacecraft will make 50 flights to Europa after arriving there in 2030. Learn more about the global ocean that underpins Europa, its crust and water thicken ice and groundwater discharged into space, the Clipper mission will collect data on the Moon’s atmosphere, surface and interior.
During its approach, the Juno spacecraft captured some of the highest resolution images of Europa’s surface ever. It will also gather important information about the Moon’s ionosphere, surface composition, interior, and interactions with Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
Europa is of great interest to scientists due to the vast ocean that lies beneath its frozen surface. They also believe that there may be unknown life in European waters. When Juno is approximately 83,397 kilometers from Europe, it will begin scanning the frozen surface, moving at a relative speed of 23.6 kilometers per second relative to the Moon.
According to NASA’s Juno mission team, the spacecraft will be in the shadow of Europa when it gets closer to the moon, but Jupiter’s atmosphere will reflect enough sunlight to allow the spacecraft to collect data in visible light.
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