Jupiter’s Ocean Moon Europa Is Ready for Its Close-up

It was a big week for Jupiter. The planet made its closest approach to Earth in over 50 years on September 26. The closest approach to the moon by a probe since 2000 occurred on September 29th.

The images of Jupiter's fourth- largest moon were produced by the flyby. In addition to the images, Juno collected a trove of data that will be used by scientists to look for signs of a briny ocean hidden beneath the crust. The flyby was just the beginning of a series of close-up encounters with the icy moon to look for signs of habitability and possibly even life.

The mission flew by at 23 kilometers per second, so it had to time its photographs as it passed. Four of the images offer a detailed portrait of the moon's chaotic surface, which is pocked with craterlike natural depressions and is probably the result of the moon's distinctly unearthly geologic activity.

The flyby is exciting because it is the first time that the probe was designed to study Jupiter. In order to better illuminate how the gas giant was formed, the mission collected data on the planet's clouds, weather, atmospheric properties and overall composition over the course of two years. The mission to study some of the planet's moons was extended by NASA after they focused their investigations on Jupiter. The principal investigator of the mission flew by the island. This past September was when we fucked. We are going by Io next year.

The moon is one of the most fascinating targets of research in the entire solar system because of its vast ocean. It comes from a perspective that is egotistical.

The ocean is important to him. It is possible that they are important to life all the time. It is possible that life can emerge without an ocean. It seems like a good place to start looking if we find a liquid ocean just a couple of planets away.

One of the most promising worlds in our search for habitability and life isEuropa. The data needed to confirm its habitability is one of the reasons why these missions are so important.

There have only been a few flybys of the moon. The dark, cold depths of the outer solar system take years to reach and are a challenging environment for any spacecraft, but those venturing into the vicinity of Europa must also contend with the belt of harsh radiation that envelops the moon. The only other probe to get close to the moon was NASA's Galileo, which flew past the moon more than twenty years ago. Galileo flew by at a record setting 200 km in 1997.

Data on Europa is sparse because of the frequent flybys. Getting up close and personal is one of the perks of being an astronomer. It was the Galileo flybys that provided the best evidence of a liquid ocean. A global ocean of salty water is the most likely material to create this magnetic signature.

Is it possible that the findings about Jupiter's moon could be the same as those about Jupiter's moon? The data are still being analyzed. As the spaceship flew past the moon, they collected data on the moon's magnetic field, gravity, and atmosphere, but they didn't know what to make of it.

There is a tool called a "microwave radiometer" It was invented by us for Juno. When you point it in an icy body, it sees into the ice at different depths. The tool should be able to detect pockets of liquid water closer to the surface if the ice is clean. Information on the structure of the ice shell is helpful. It could take weeks or months to analyze the new data from the moon.

Scientists will be able to prepare for future missions that will focus on icy moons when the results are in. The European Space Agency has aJupiter Icy Moons Explorer. In 2031, it is expected to reach Jupiter. Jupiter is going to study three moons. The next mission will be NASA's Europa Clipper, which is expected to launch in 2024 and arrive at its destination in 2030, thanks to a more direct trajectory. At least 49 close flybys will take place once the moon is reached.

Many members of the Europa Clipper team were excited to see the first close-up photographs of Europa in over two decades. CynthiaPhillips, a staff scientist at the Europa Clipper mission, was playing with the images and trying to figure out where they were. I grabbed my globe so I could identify surface features based on that.

The longer shadows make it easier to see the features on the ground. She says there are ridges, troughs, and pits in the area. Changes in these features from Galileo's previous flybys would help to illuminate the nature and evolution of the moon's geology.

New images of Europa are compared to old ones byPhillips. They have a new hair style. Their age is a couple years older. She says they're the same.

The new images are a fascination to many people. As the team prepares for its upcoming mission, they offer benefits.

There is an updated map of the Jovian moon. Alfred McEwen says that the new data will be combined with the Galileo and Voyager data to create a new global base map. We will use that to target the images initially, but we will quickly get better data from Clipper itself. Juno's pictures will make a difference early on.

Depending on what is found in the images, the Europa Clipper team may be able to focus on certain areas during its flybys. As a key example, I think everyone is going to be looking at the pictures and trying to find something. Plumes of water shooting from the moon would suggest a way to get to the moon's watery underside. Jupiter's periodic squeezing of the moon as it moves around the planet is believed to be the cause of such plumes.

If, against considerable odds, there is a hint of a plume somewhere on the moon, the Clipper could fly through a geyser like eruption in order to get samples of the water. It sounds far-out, but one remembers that the Cassini spacecraft did a similar stunt at Enceladus. Researchers would be able to look for compounds in the water.

The main goal of the project was to understand the origin of planets. The probe might help illuminate the origin of life. He says that these are some of the most fundamental questions that you can ponder.