NASA’s Juno spacecraft has made the closest strategy to Jupiter’s tantalizing, icy moon Europa in additional than 20 years.
Juno on Thursday zipped inside roughly 219 miles (352 kilometers) of Europa, thought to have an ocean flowing beneath its thick frozen crust, elevating the opportunity of underwater life. Scientists hailed the flyby as a hit, with 4 photos beamed down and launched inside a number of hours.
Scientists had hoped to watch doable water plumes taking pictures from the floor of Europa, shut in measurement to Earth’s moon. However none have been instantly seen within the preliminary look.
“We have now to be on the proper place at simply the correct time,” Juno’s chief scientist, Scott Bolton of Southwest Analysis Institute in San Antonio, stated in a press release.
John Bordi, deputy mission supervisor at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, anticipated the spacecraft to go “screaming by fairly quick,” with a relative velocity of just about 15 miles per second (23.6 kilometers per second).
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This picture made obtainable by NASA reveals the complicated, ice-covered floor of Jupiter’s moon Europa, captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft throughout a flyby on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. At closest strategy, the spacecraft got here inside a distance of about 219 miles (352 kilometers). Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS by way of AP
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This picture made obtainable by NASA in 2014 reveals Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in a reprocessed coloration view, comprised of photos captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft within the late Nineties. NASA’s Juno spacecraft made the closest strategy to Jupiter’s tantalizing, icy moon Europa in additional than 20 years on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute by way of AP
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This illustration depicts NASA’s Juno spacecraft making one in every of its shut passes over Jupiter. Juno made the closest strategy to Jupiter’s tantalizing, icy moon Europa in additional than 20 years on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. Credit score: NASA by way of AP
The primary picture from the flyby is a closeup of Europa’s equatorial area, crisscrossed by ridges, troughs and presumably an impression crater.
The newest observations will assist NASA plan for its Europa Clipper mission, as a consequence of launch in 2024 and arrive on the Jovian system in 2030. The European House Company additionally plans shut encounters with its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, lifting off subsequent 12 months.
NASA’s former Galileo spacecraft nonetheless holds the Europa flyby file, passing inside 218 miles (351 kilometers) in 2000.
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NASA spacecraft buzzes Jupiter moon Europa, closest in years (2022, September 29)
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