Tag Archive for 'Europa Clipper'

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

New Study Advances Understanding of Habitability of Ocean Worlds within Solar System and Beyond

Dec 30, 2024 by News Staff

In a new paper, planetary researchers from Texas A&M University and the University of Washington introduce a new thermodynamic concept called the centotectic...

An artist’s concept of NASA’s Europa Clipper shows the spacecraft in silhouette against the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, with the magnetometer boom fully deployed at top and the antennas for the radar instrument extending out from the solar arrays. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft Deploying Its Instruments

Nov 27, 2024 by NASA

NASA’s Europa Clipper — the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission — is already 20 million km (13 million miles)...

Europa Clipper lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT on October 14, 2024. Image credit: NASA / Kim Shiflett.

NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft Launches to Jupiter’s Icy Moon

Oct 14, 2024 by News Staff

Europa Clipper lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:06 p.m. EDT on October 14, 2024 to begin a six-year journey to Jupiter’s...

This side of a commemorative plate mounted on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft features U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA Scientists Unveil Design for Europa Clipper’s ‘Golden Record’

Mar 12, 2024 by News Staff

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a triangular metal plate with a special message when it launches in October 2024 and heads toward Jupiter’s...

Molecular hydrogen points to hydrothermal activity in an ocean beneath the icy surface of Enceladus. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Ice Plumes of Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus May Hold Amino Acids, Study Suggests

Dec 5, 2023 by News Staff

Enceladus is a prime target in the search for life in the Solar System, identified by NASA as the second-highest priority site for a flagship mission in...

This view of Europa was captured by JunoCam during Juno’s close flyby on September 29, 2022. Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson processed the view to create this image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Björn Jónsson / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Rotation of Europa’s Ice Shell May Be Controlled By Dynamics of Subsurface Ocean: Study

Mar 14, 2023 by News Staff

The subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa is heated from below via tidal heating and radioactive decay of the rocky interior, while being cooled...

Review of the mechanisms proposed in the literature to explain the emplacement of liquid reservoirs invoked to correspond to a variety of geological features at Europa’s surface. Image credit: Lesage et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ac75bf.

Shallow Lakes in Europa’s Crust Could Erupt, Planetary Scientists Say

Oct 13, 2022 by News Staff

In the search for life beyond Earth, subsurface bodies of water in the outer Solar System are some of the most important targets. That’s why NASA and...

Engineers Begin Assembly of NASA’s Europa Clipper

Mar 7, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa to see whether the icy moon could harbor conditions...

Small Impacts Mechanically Churn Uppermost Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa, Researchers Say

Jul 13, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Planetary scientists are studying the cumulative effects of small impacts on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa as they prepare to explore the icy...

This artist’s conception of Europa shows a hypothesized cryovolcanic eruption, in which briny water from within the icy shell blasts into space. Image credit: Justice Blaine Wainwright.

Europa’s Plumes May Originate from Near-Surface Brine Reservoirs, Not Global Ocean

Nov 11, 2020 by News Staff

Europa, the sixth of Jupiter’s moons and the fourth largest, has a subsurface ocean covered by an icy shell. Despite evidence for plumes on the icy moon,...

Artist’s concept of ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Planetary Researchers Explore Habitability of Europa’s Ocean

Jun 25, 2020 by News Staff

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...

A 2016 artist’s concept of the Europa Clipper spacecraft. The design is changing as the spacecraft is developed. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA Confirms Europa Clipper Mission

Aug 21, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is moving toward completion of its final design, followed by the construction and testing of the solar-powered spacecraft...

Artist’s illustration of Jupiter and Europa with NASA’s Galileo spacecraft after its pass through a plume erupting from Europa’s surface. A new computer simulation gives us an idea of how the magnetic field interacted with a plume. The magnetic field lines (depicted in blue) show how the plume interacts with the ambient flow of Jovian plasma. The red colors on the lines show more dense areas of plasma. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Michigan.

Archival Data from NASA’s Galileo Mission Yield New Evidence of Water Plumes on Europa

May 15, 2018 by News Staff

A new analysis of data collected by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 1997 has found strong evidence that the underground ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa...

Artist’s concept shows a simulated view from the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission Enters Development Stage

Jun 18, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Europa Clipper – a future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa – has completed its first major review by the agency and now is entering...

Based on new evidence from Jupiter's moon Europa, astronomers hypothesize that chloride salts bubble up from the icy moon's global liquid ocean and reach the frozen surface where they are bombarded with sulfur from volcanoes on Jupiter's innermost large moon, Io (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

NASA Selects Science Instruments for Europa Clipper Mission

May 27, 2015 by News Staff

NASA has announced the selection of science instruments for the Europa Clipper, a future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Based on new evidence from...