This artist's concept shows a simulated view from the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
NASA’s Juno cam will do a fly-by of Europa – the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter – on Thursday, 29 September.
Europa is slightly smaller than our moon, and the Juno Cam probe will pass by its surface from a distance of approximately 357 kilometres.
That’s approximately the distance from Johannesburg to Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal (which would be a 4-hour, 15-minute drive by car).
Even though Juno will be Europa’s shadow during the fly-by, Jupiter’s atmosphere will reflect enough light for the sensors to collect the necessary data.
The goal of this mission is to scout for any signs of alien life.
The probe will, of course, do what it is meant to: take photos of the entire moon and its surface; but scientists will instead focus on what lies beneath the surface.
As per a statement released by NASA, scientists want to determine if Europa’s surface conditions could potentially support life.
They think this may be possible due to a (yet to be confirmed) salty ocean deep beneath Europa’s thick ice shell surface.
The Juno Cam is fully fitted out for this task, too. NASA says the spacecraft’s “full suite of instruments and sensors will be activated for the Europa encounter”.
This includes:
NASA says the Jupiter probe’s MWR will “peer into Europa’s water-ice crust, obtaining data on its composition and temperature”.
“This is the first time such data will have been collected to study the moon’s icy shell”, NASA said in a press release.
The Juno Cam is also known for capturing amazing images of the gas giant, meaning this is a historic moment – capturing the highest-resolution images ever taken of Europa.
Juno consistently sends back the most detailed images of Jupiter and its biggest moon Ganymede, since its launch back in 2016.
The spacecraft is scheduled for a trip to another one of Jupiter’s moons, Io, in 2023.
The “family portrait” below is a composite of the Jovian system and includes the edge of Jupiter with its Great Red Spot, as well as Jupiter’s four largest moons, known as the Galilean satellites.
The moons shown in the image here are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
The Juno project is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
