Topline
NASA on Monday launched a spacecraft toward Europa as part of a six-year mission to study one of Jupiter’s moons, which the space agency believes could be one of the “most promising places” to sustain life in the solar system.
NASA’s illustration showing the Europa Clipper over Europa.
Key Facts
NASA launched the Europa Clipper spacecraft—equipped on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket—from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida around 12:06 p.m. EDT.
NASA estimates Europa Clipper will travel 1.8 billion miles and enter Jupiter’s orbit on April 11, 2030, after which the spacecraft will make 49 flybys of Europa over four years.
During its journey, NASA will study whether there are places below Europa’s surface that “could support life”: Europa Clipper will measure the depth of Europa’s ocean and take thermal imaging of the moon to determine where the ice is thinner and where the ocean is closest to the surface.
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Crucial Quote
Robert Pappalardo, a project scientist for Europa Clipper, told The New York Times that Europa is “certainly the most likely place for life beyond Earth in our solar system” because the moon is “the most likely to have the ingredients for life in abundance and for there to be enough time for life to get going.”
Surprising Fact
Weighing about 12,500 pounds and with solar panels that span more than 100 feet, Europa Clipper is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built by NASA, according to the agency. The spacecraft is also equipped with several cameras, spectrometers—which measure wavelengths—as well as a magnetometer and radar.
Big Number
$5.2 billion. That’s how much NASA spent to develop and construct the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
Key Background
Europa is the smaller of the four largest moons orbiting Jupiter and is the sixth closest to the planet, which has 79 moons, according to NASA. First discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610, NASA began studying Europa in the 1970s and found the moon could have the potential for having habitable environments. The moon has a very thin atmosphere that is primarily oxygen, and scientists believe there is a saltwater ocean hidden beneath Europa’s surface. Europa could have all the “ingredients” to sustain life, according to NASA, including water, organic “building blocks,” surface radiation and planetary stability.
