The European Space Agency launches the JUICE mission to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. Full details


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Saturday, April 15, 2023 11:00 PM

The European Space Agency (ESA) is the first mission of its kind to search for alien life on Earth Jupiter worlds The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, or JUICE, mission launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana Friday at 8:14 AM EST (5:44 PM EST). , after a one-day delay due to a lightning hazard.

According to the Indian website TOI, the spacecraft will take eight years to reach The largest planet in the solar system The year is 2031, planetary scientist and JUICE team member Olivier Weetas said during a press conference last week: “The main goal is to understand if there are habitable environments between those icy moons and around a giant planet like Jupiter.”

“Our main question is whether we can find habitable places within the Jupiter system. Knowing more about Jupiter will tell us more about our own solar system and other systems,” said Olivier Weetas, a planetary scientist at the European Space Agency, and Juice will provide detailed observations of Jupiter and its moons. The big three carrying the ocean – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – using a combination of instruments.

The mission will characterize these moons as potential planetary objects and habitats, explore Jupiter’s complex environment in depth, and study the wider Jupiter system as archetypal gas giants across the universe. Unique object in the solar system”, “It is the only moon with a magnetic field and the largest moon in the solar system. The main goal is to understand whether there are habitable environments between those icy moons and around a giant planet like Jupiter.”

JUICE will also perform flybys of Venus, Earth and the Moon to increase its speed and adjust its trajectory. But to do this, those celestial bodies must align properly, which only happens twice a year, in April and again at the end of summer.

According to the European Space Agency, the JUICE mission cost an estimated $1.7 billion and is the product of a “global” collaboration between 23 countries, 18 academic institutions, and 83 private companies.






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