Science Objectives of NASA's Europa Clipper Ocean Moon Mission | JPL
This graphic illustrates the main science objectives of NASA's Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter's moon Europa: to understand the nature of Europa's icy shell and confirm the existence of a subsurface ocean, investigate Europa's composition, characterize its geology, and determine the level of activity, such as possible water plumes.
Clockwise from top left: an artist's concept of Europa's interior. It is likely to contain a global ocean beneath the icy surface with possible hydrothermal activity on the ocean floor; water signatures at Europa's Manannán Crater made visible by mapping colors onto infrared data from NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter; ultraviolet observations by the Hubble Space Telescope showing evidence of a possible plume at Europa and indicating possible activity at the moon; and a color view of Europa's Conamara Chaos region based on an image from NASA's Galileo mission.
Europa Clipper's three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon's icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission's detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.
Beyond Earth, Jupiter’s moon Europa is considered one of the solar system’s most promising potentially habitable environments. After an approximately 1.8-billion-mile journey, Europa Clipper will enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030, where the spacecraft will conduct a detailed survey of Europa to determine whether the icy world could have conditions suitable for life.
Europa Clipper carries a suite of nine instruments along with a gravity experiment that will investigate an ocean beneath Europa’s surface that scientists believe contains twice as much liquid water as Earth’s oceans.
Europa Clipper's science instruments include cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer, and an ice-penetrating radar. These instruments will study Europa’s icy shell, the ocean beneath, and the composition of the gases in the moon’s atmosphere and surface geology, and provide insights into the moon’s potential habitability. The spacecraft also will carry a thermal instrument to pinpoint locations of warmer ice and any possible eruptions of water vapor.
Find more information about Europa here:
Full-size downloads: https://go.nasa.gov/3ZIDxgu
#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #EuropaClipper #EuropaClipperSpacecraft #Jupiter #Europa #Moon #OceanWorlds #Astrobiology #Biosignatures #Habitability #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #JPL #Caltech #NASAAmes #SETI #SwRI #UnitedStates #ESA #Europe #Infographic #STEM #Education
No comments:
Post a Comment