After a successful launch aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is headed for Jupiter’s moon Europa. This is a $5.2 billion mission that began in 2015 and ended in 2034.
NASA is targeting Europa, one of Jupiter’s four largest moons which has a saltwater ocean beneath its icy surface. The American Space Agency believes this is one of the best places to look for life beyond Earth. Europa’s diameter is about 90 percent of the Earth’s moon, with surface temperatures ranging from 208 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 370F.
Moreover, it orbits Jupiter quite quickly – about 3.55 Earth days at a distance of 671,000 km from that planet, which is about 1.74 times farther than our moon to Earth. NASA scientists say Europa, like the Earth’s moon, is locked by gravity. The surface of Europa is mostly made of water ice, and a significant amount of reddish, non-ice material.
Scientists believe there’s a global saltwater ocean beneath Europa’s icy crust. It could be around 60 to 150 kilometers deep, and large enough to contain more than twice as much water as Earth’s oceans combined.
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NASA Looking for Alien Life on Jupiter
Man-kind has long been searching for alien life, and Jupiter could be it. Europa’s salty ocean could possess the right kind of elements for life to thrive in. Christopher Chyba, associate professor (research) of geological and environmental sciences, says the bombardment of radiation from Jupiter onto its moon should produce organic and oxidant molecules sufficient to fuel a substantial Europan biosphere.
He highlighted that sunlight would not provide enough energy to sustain life on Europa as its ocean appears to lie beneath an ice layer that is too thick to permit photosynthesis. Chyba believes the source of energy may come from fast-moving, charged particles that pound Europa from Jupiter. And it should be noted that Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field of any planet – more than 10x stronger than Earth’s. NASA’s Europa Clipper has set out to find such life.
