The announcement occurred four days later than expected due to Hurricane Milton, which hit the State of Florida on Wednesday night, causing 23 deaths, according to the latest report from the US authorities.
Joe Skipper
A North American Space Agency (NASA) This past Monday, it launched the Clipper probe, which will study Europa, a moon of Jupiter that has an ocean beneath its icy surface with the potential to harbor life as we know it.
The space probe was launched from the NASA center in Florida at 12:06 pm local time (5:06 pm in Lisbon), aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket, from the company SpaceX, owned by tycoon Elon Musk.
The Europa Clipper mission is NASA’s first mission to “explore oceanic worlds beyond Earth”.
The probe will travel 2.9 billion kilometers and after starting the orbit of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, in April 2030, it will pass by Europa 49 times.
Europa, the smallest of Jupiter’s four moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in the 17th century, is almost the same size as Earth’s natural satellite, the Moon, but its interior is different.
Data collected in the 1990s by the Galileo space probe, according to NASA, revealed strong evidence that “beneath Europa’s ice is a vast salty ocean, with more water than all the Earth’s oceans combined.”
In addition, according to scientists, this moon of Jupiter “could host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface. “
The Clipper spacecraft carries nine scientific instruments, including “ice-penetrating radar, cameras, and a thermal instrument to detect warmer ice areas and recent water eruptions . “
To keep these instruments running on power in the weak sunlight reaching Jupiter, the probe will carry the largest solar panels ever used by NASA for an interplanetary mission.
The length of the probe is 30.5 meters and the panels are open.
Clipper is expected to begin scientific missions of Europa in 2031 to “determine the thickness of the moon’s icy layer and its interaction with the ocean below, study its composition and identify its geology. “
2024-10-14 22:50:00
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