Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel — NASA has embarked on a groundbreaking mission to explore Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon, in search for the signs of ‘alien’ or extraterrestrial life beyond the planet earth. Launch the Europa Clipper spacecraft, the mission aims to investigate Europa’s potential to support life and assess whether its frozen surface could hide a habitable environment beneath.
According to NASA, Scientists believed that Europa, could hold the key ingredients for life within its subsurface ocean, which is water, chemistry, and energy. Prior missions have found compelling evidence that beneath Europa’s thick icy shell lies an ocean that may contain twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined. Organic compounds, essential building blocks of life, may also be present on this distant moon.
In pursuit of these discoveries, NASA launched the Europa Clipper spacecraft on Monday, October 14, from Cape Canaveral. The mission is expected to take five years to reach Jupiter. Europa Clipper expecte to begin orbiting the Jupiter moon in April 2030, and by 2031, it will start conducting 49 close flybys of Europa to gather scientific data.
Europa Clipper is a massive spacecraft and consider NASA’s largest interplanetary explorer. It spanning nearly 30 meters with its solar panels fully extended, which is about the length of a basketball court. The spacecraft weighing around 6,000 kilograms, or as heavy as an African elephant.
The mission’s primary goal is not to search for life directly but to assess Europa’s habitability. Europa Clipper will fly over the moon’s surface, collecting detailed data to help scientists understand whether Europa could harbor life. Its instruments will probe beneath the ice to explore areas that may support life.
Equipped with Advance Instruments
To carry out its mission, Europa Clipper is equipped with nine cutting-edge scientific instruments. These include a wide-angle camera to study geological activity, a thermal imaging system to detect warmer areas beneath the icy surface, and a spectrometer to analyze Europa’s chemical composition, gases, and water vapor from suspected plumes of water.
The spacecraft’s suite of instruments will also map Europa’s surface, measure the depth and salinity of its ocean, and assess the thickness of its ice crust. Another key tool is a dust analyzer that will examine particles ejected from the moon’s surface by small meteoroid impacts or water plumes.
A New Frontier in the Search for Alien Life
The Europa Clipper mission represents a significant leap in humanity’s search for alien life and potential planet for life. While previous efforts have mostly focused on Mars, the mission shifts attention to other celestial bodies that may also hold the potential for life. Mars, though technically in the Sun’s “habitable zone,” faces challenges like high radiation levels and a lack of atmosphere, making it less ideal for sustaining life.
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In contrast, moons such as Europa, and two of Saturn’s moons — Titan and Enceladus — have emerged as promising candidates for life due to their subsurface oceans. These moons are subjected to powerful gravitational forces from their parent planets, which cause stretching and compression, generating heat that keeps the water beneath their icy crusts in liquid form.
Enceladus, for example, ejects massive plumes of water vapor into space, indicating the presence of an underground ocean. Europa’s smooth surface, despite frequent impacts from meteoroids, suggests a similar phenomenon, where water from subsurface oceans may replenish the surface.
Europa also possesses a magnetic field, much like Earth, hinting at a liquid layer beneath its surface that could support life.
With these factors in mind, Europa Clipper’s mission could provide critical insights into whether this icy moon could be one of the most promising locations in the solar system for life beyond Earth.
(Raidi/Agung)
