The path to Jupiter\u2019s moons, which scientists believe could harbor conditions friendly for sustaining life, is long and paved with Earth flybys.<\/p>\n
The European Space Agency (ESA) launched its Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) in April 2023, to focus on the behemoth\u2019s two largest moons, Ganymede and Callisto. Juice will also gather scads of data about Jupiter itself and the smaller moon Europa, which scientists consider one of the most promising places to look for life in the solar system.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s just one hitch: Juice won\u2019t arrive for another five years.<\/p>\n
The next step is to zip within 5,400 miles of Earth, a Monday morning maneuver that will give Juice a crucial gravity assist to boost its speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have a long journey ahead before reaching Jupiter in 2031, but every step we take now brings us closer to our destination,\u201d said Olivier Witasse, project scientist for the mission.<\/p>\n
The flyby will also give the spacecraft a chance to practice observations it will need to make as it explores Jupiter and its moons, with Juice\u2019s instruments gathering data for a week and a half surrounding the close approach. That means, of course, intriguing new images of our home planet from afar. But more of the flyby data will be the sort of thing only scientists could love. For example, the spacecraft will be a rare visitor to the long tail of Earth\u2019s magnetic field, offering experts a glimpse at how much that tail flaps in the face of the constant stream of charged particles flowing off the sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very serendipitous,\u201d said Patrick Brown, a space physicist at Imperial College London and instrument manager for the Juice magnetometer.<\/p>\n
Seeing how the instrument responds to Earth\u2019s magnetic field will give scientists the information they need to better interpret what it measures out at Jupiter\u2019s icy moons. There, the instrument is a vital part of Juice\u2019s investigation of these worlds. The magnetometer will peer beneath each moon\u2019s icy shell, measuring its thickness, as well as the depth and saltiness of any ocean hiding below. It\u2019s those hidden oceans that scientists believe may have the conditions necessary for life to thrive – lots of liquid water, a source of energy and the elements most commonly found in organisms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moons of the outer solar system are kind of like the next undiscovered country,\u201d said Cynthia Phillips, a planetary scientist at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. \u201cThey\u2019re very different from any place that we\u2019ve really observed up close before.\u201d Phillips is not involved in the Juice mission, but is the project staff scientist for NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper mission, which is also currently en route to the Jupiter system, where the two spacecraft will do complementary work.<\/p>\n
Although Juice will gather limited data about the most tantalizing moon, its insights will still flesh out scientists\u2019 understanding of Europa\u2019s habitability. \u201cStudying the whole system of Galilean satellites helps to give us really good context for a place like Europa,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n
Juice\u2019s next milestone will come in three years, when it zips past Earth again before heading out to Jupiter for good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The path to Jupiter\u2019s moons, which scientists believe could harbor conditions friendly for sustaining life, is long and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,141],"class_list":["post-629476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}