Popular Articles
Today Week Month Year


European Space Agency launches probe to search for alien life on Jupiter’s icy moons
By Kevin Hughes // Apr 17, 2023

A new chapter in the search for extraterrestrial life in space has begun, with the European Space Agency (ESA) launching a spacecraft to discover signs of life on other planets in the solar system.

The ESA's $1.75 billion Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft was launched Thursday, April 13, from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. It is projected to enter Jupiter's orbit in July 2031.

"We would like to see whether there are places around Jupiter where life could have started. We need to find a place with internal energy and liquid water," said JUICE project scientist Olivier Witasse. "With the icy moons of Jupiter, we have good reasons to believe that there is more water [there] than on Earth."

The highest reserves of water happen to exist on worlds very far from Earth, which is in deep space and in orbit around Jupiter and Saturn. The notion that the best hopes of discovering alien life rest with studies of ice-coated moons in deep space would have appeared absurd a few decades ago.

Initially, Venus and Mars – planets on the sides of Earth – would serve as the best hopes of finding alien life. However, a space probe found that Venus had a surface temperature of 475 C (887 F), hot enough to melt lead. Meanwhile, the Red Planet was discovered to have lost its atmosphere and surface water billions of years ago.

Carried aboard an Ariane 5 launcher, the JUICE spacecraft will examine three of Jupiter's icy moons – Callisto, Europa and Ganymede. The latter, which is larger than the planet Mercury, is the only moon in the solar system with its own magnetic field.

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.

After a string of visits to Callisto and Europa, JUICE will enter into a fixed orbit around Ganymede in 2034 – the first time a space probe has ever held an orbit around a moon other than Earth's moon. JUICE's set of instruments will explore Ganymede's ocean to find out its depth, distance from the surface and composition. The ESA space probe will spend eight months orbiting Ganymede, getting as close as 125 miles from the moon while protected from radiation.

NASA also planning to explore Jupiter's icy moons

Alongside the ESA's JUICE mission, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) also plans to launch its Europa Clipper probe. Schedule to launch in October 2024, it will take a shorter route by using flybys of Earth and Mars. It is set to arrive at Uranus by April 2030, more than a year earlier than the JUICE probe.

While the JUICE probe will focus on Ganymede, the Europa Clipper will focus on the Europa moon. It is expected to make 50 nearby approaches, flying a few hundred miles over its surface to identify areas that could support life. (Related: Alien life may exist in Jupiter's moon Europa and other frozen worlds.)

Earlier U.S. satellites found that the ice on three Jovian moons covered enormous oceans of liquid water, the one necessity required for the existence of life on Earth. Jovian moons are classified as moons because they orbit Jupiter, but they might be called planets due to their size if they were to orbit the sun on their own.

It was also found in 2005 that Enceladus, Saturn's sixth-largest moon, is sprinkling water and organic material into space from a subterranean ocean.

"If ever there was a next-best place to look for life, it's here," said American astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson on the subject of these icy moons.

Follow Cosmic.news for more news about the space missions on Jupiter and its moons.

Watch this video explaining why life on Jupiter is possible following the discovery of water in the planet's clouds.

This video is from the CleanTV channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Search for origin of life intensifies as NASA probes alien oceans on moons in the outer solar system.Study: An extra planet between Mars and Jupiter could push Earth out of the solar system.

NASA releases stunning audio of eerie sounds taken from flyby of Jupiter's moon, Ganymede.

Study suggests Europa, Jupiter's Moon, contains table salt in its oceans just like the oceans on Earth.

"Icy corridor" on the Saturn moon of Titan baffles scientists.

Sources include:

TheGuardian.com

Phys.org

Brighteon.com



Take Action:
Support NewsTarget by linking to this article from your website.
Permalink to this article:
Copy
Embed article link:
Copy
Reprinting this article:
Non-commercial use is permitted with credit to NewsTarget.com (including a clickable link).
Please contact us for more information.
Free Email Alerts
Get independent news alerts on natural cures, food lab tests, cannabis medicine, science, robotics, drones, privacy and more.

NewsTarget.com © 2022 All Rights Reserved. All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. NewsTarget.com is not responsible for content written by contributing authors. The information on this site is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice of any kind. NewsTarget.com assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. Your use of this website indicates your agreement to these terms and those published on this site. All trademarks, registered trademarks and servicemarks mentioned on this site are the property of their respective owners.

This site uses cookies
News Target uses cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using this site, you agree to our privacy policy.
Learn More
Close
Get 100% real, uncensored news delivered straight to your inbox
You can unsubscribe at any time. Your email privacy is completely protected.