National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a spacecraft on Monday, October 14 which aims to explore Jupiter’s moon, Europa, and learn if the ocean on the said satellite might point out some keys to life.
Europa Clipper 5 took off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida as it started its 2.9 billion kilometer journey.
It is expected to reach Jupiter in approximately five years and six months where it will slip into the orbit of the said planet while sneaking close to the said moon.
The rocket launched by NASA will not take a straight path to Jupiter, but instead, it will loop around Mars and Earth which will aid it to gain speed going to Europa.
Scientists believe that Jupiter’s Europa harbors a deep ocean beneath its icy crust which convinced them that the satellite may be suitable for life.
“It’s important to us to paint a picture of what that alien ocean is like — the kind of chemistry or even biochemistry that could be happening there,” Dr. Morgan Cable stated, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Europa Clipper team member.
In spite of that, NASA cleared that the rocket will not directly search for life, but instead, it will be investigating whether Europa have ingredients necessary to be habitable, as well as its organic compounds and other components which makes it suitable to sustain life. —VC
