Tag Archives: europa

NASA first proposed a dedicated mission to study Jupiter’s moon Europa way back in the 1990s, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that the Europa Clipper mission got funding. The agency now hopes to launch this spacecraft in 2024, and a new study could point the way to …

  Many planetary scientists believe that Europa might be our best bet to find evidence of alien life in our own backyard. Although, it’s a big backyard, and the planned Europa Clipper mission needs a powerful rocket to reach the Jovian moon. Congress previously required that this mission launch on …

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is bombarded by a constant and intense blast of radiation from the gas giant. Different salty compounds on the moon’s surface react differently to the radiation and emit their own unique glimmer. To the naked eye, this glow would look sometimes slightly green, sometimes slightly blue …

Planetary Researchers Explore Habitability of Europa’s Ocean A duo of U.S. planetary scientists has calculated that water in the subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could have been formed by breakdown of water-containing minerals due to either tidal forces or radioactive decay. Artist’s concept of ocean on Jupiter’s moon …

India just set a world record by sending 104 satellites into space in a single launch. One hundred and three of them were nanosats, but they were crated beside Cartosat-2D: a three-quarter-ton beast the Indian government is going to use for cartography, imaging and maybe weather mapping. Ninety-six of the 103 were …

In a new report to NASA released this week, a 21-member team of scientists assess the scientific value and engineering design of a future mission to the surface of Europa. This artist’s rendering illustrates a conceptual design for a potential future mission to land a robotic probe on the surface …