An innovative mission is about to get going from the shores of Florida, and it hopes to seek any signs of life on one of Jupiter’s icy moons. The Europa Clipper spacecraft is projected to take about ten years travelling to Europa, also known as an ice world, which many believe sits on an ocean’s surface. There are possibilities that life may exist beyond the earmarked this discovery may help us redefine a new meaning of life beyond earEarthSetting Off for the Farthest Reaches of Our Galaxy.
In just a few hours, the wind will be howling around the Europa Clipper spacecraft as it comes off the Florida coast at Cape Canaveral.This spacecraft will race towards Europa using gravity engines to catch up with even a European mission launched last year.
Even though the time the spacecraft arrives in Europa will be 2030, the mission promises excellent promises. However, a planetary microbiologist research, Mark Fox Powell from the Open University, explains, “If we find life out there, life so far from the sun, it would mean life on earth evolved due to different beginnings”. This is interesting since it would mean that life is not a one-off occurrence but one that extrapolates across the cosmos.
How Moons Are Different from Each Other
From the EarEarth’srspective, Europa is a moon. However, it is much more different than the EarEarth’s. Its location puts it some 628 million kilometres away from earmarking it five times brighter in the sky owing to its water-ice surface. Some scientists suggest that under its ice crust, which is 25 kilometres thick, there might lie a vast ocean of saltwater with some essential ingredients needed to develop a simple organic life.
Be ready for Delays and how they affect Launch ReadinessÂ
Even so, following inspections of the site in Cape Canaveral and finding that there had been no harm to the launch pad, NASA gave a thumbs up for lifting off the ground at 12.06 local time on the 14th of October 2014.
Lessons Activities and Activities on Board Past Missions
That was when astronomers in Arizona detected water on the moon’s surface. It was followed by NASA’s Voyager 1 And 2 missions, which gave the first imaging of the planet. The Galileo spacecraft in 1995 also came back with images of Europa with reddish brown cracks on its surface. These cracks in the surface may contain sulfates and salts, which could assist in sustaining life.
Scientists recently marveled at data from the James Webb Space Telescope, which reveal what appears to be water vapor plumes 160 kilometers above Europa’s surface.
Still, none of these missions lasted long enough to investigate Europa’s surroundings thoroughly, so fully the onus on the Europa Clipper un, sothe moon’s guarded mysteries.
