Is there life on a Jupiter moon?
The Clipper interplanetary probe, unveiled by NASA on Thursday, must take off to find out.
His departure is scheduled for October and his journey is expected to last several years.
Could there be signs of life under the surface of an icy Jupiter moon? An intriguing question. To try to find out, NASA unveiled, Thursday April 11, an interplanetary probe intended to find out what it is. Named Clipper and worth five billion dollars, it is due to leave in October aboard a Space X Falcon Heavy rocket, bound for Europa, one of dozens of moons of Jupiter, the largest planet. of the solar system. The journey of this device is planned to last a little over 5 years. It will pass by Mars, before entering orbit around Jupiter and then Europa in 2031.
“One of the fundamental questions that NASA wants to understand is, are we alone in the cosmos?”, Bob Pappalardo, mission scientist, explained to AFP. If proof of life was discovered, “This would be a huge step forward in understanding how widespread life is in the universe”he added.
Currently, the device is kept in a sterile room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. It is only accessible to staff covered from head to toe. All precautions are taken so that the probe does not bring any Earth microbes to Europa. Once its mission begins, Clipper will begin a detailed inspection of this satellite of Jupiter, of a size comparable to the Moon, which scientists believe is covered in frozen water.
The goal of the mission? Find out if the conditions would be favorable for living there
To best achieve this mission, everything has been thought out down to the smallest detail: “We have instruments like cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer and radar that can … penetrate the ice, bounce off the liquid water and come back to the surface to tell us how thick the ice is and where the liquid water is located”, continues Bob Pappalardo. Mission leaders aren’t hoping to find little green men splashing around. They are looking for signs of life, but especially if there are favorable conditions for it in Europe.
“If the moons around the planets far from the stars could support life, then the number of possibilities in the solar system, in the universe, for life to be present, increases drastically, I think.”estimated Jordan Evans, project manager for the Europa Clipper mission.
Possible risks of damage for Clipper
Clipper’s mission will not be easy, however. Due to a powerful radiation field that encompasses Jupiter’s natural satellite, it could damage the instruments of the probe which will receive the equivalent of 100,000 chest x-rays at each loop around its objective. Due to the distance, its data will take about 45 minutes to arrive at the control station and despite its enormous solar panels which will deploy once in space, it will be difficult to keep Clipper in service, according to Jordan Evans.
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“Near the earth, they could power 20 houses continuously. And near Jupiter, just a few light bulbs and small appliances”. A problem which is linked to the distance of the planet from the Sun, explains the project manager for the Europa Clipper mission.
Planning for this mission began in the late 1990s and should end around 2034, more than 40 years later. This will occur when Clipper has reached the end of its useful life. The probe’s final step will be to crash into a moon of Jupiter, said Tim Larson, deputy project leader. “When we’re done with the science mission, the way to end it is to crash into one of the other (celestial) bodies in the Jovian system available to the device.”, he concluded. For the moment, NASA plans to rush the probe against Ganymede, the largest natural satellite of Jupiter, said the deputy head of the project.