Juno Just Raced by Europa, Providing Our Best Look in 20 Years at the Icy World

upstart writes:

"We are screaming by pretty fast":

On Thursday morning, NASA's Juno spacecraft swooped down to within 358 km of the surface of Europa, the large, ice-encrusted Moon that orbits Jupiter.

This flyby will provide humanity its closest look at Europa since the Galileo mission made several close flybys more than two decades ago. However, the Juno spacecraft will carry a more powerful suite of instruments and a far more capable camera than Galileo. So this should be our best look yet at the intriguing world.

[...] Scientists have long been curious about Europa, which is covered in ice but believed to have a vast ocean beneath the surface due to the moon's warm core. There is probably more liquid water in Europa's global ocean than exists on Earth, planetary scientists think. While the ice sheet is believed to be several kilometers thick, the Hubble Space Telescope has collected data that indicates geysers may be periodically ejected through cracks in this ice. Given the presence of water and heat, this ocean is considered to be a potential reservoir for microbic alien life.

[...] The visual imagery and scientific data will help inform NASA scientists who are completing assembly of the Europa Clipper, a large spacecraft due to launch in 2024 on a Falcon Heavy rocket. This mission will be dedicated to the study of the Moon, arriving in 2030 and performing more than 50 flybys at close range to gather data. Eventually the space agency would like to send a lander but wants to obtain data from the flyby missions first to assess the best location for landing, potentially near a water vapor plume, if they really exist.

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