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Moons of Jupiter, right here we come. The European Space Agency (ESA) is sending an orbiter on an 8-year journey in direction of Jupiter, the place it should discover three of the gasoline large’s 4 giant moons. The orbiter, known as the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is scheduled to launch on 13 April from Kourou, French Guiana.
If all goes to plan, it should launch at 12:15 UTC atop an Ariane 5 rocket. The journey to Jupiter isn’t a direct one, although – at launch, the spacecraft received’t have sufficient velocity to go straight there. Instead, it should take a circuitous route, making a sequence of shut passes by Earth and Venus over the course of the following six years. Those passes may have a form of slingshot impact, rushing up the orbiter to get it to the Jupiter system.
Once it will get there in 2031, it should carry out one other sequence of shut passes, this time to Jupiter’s moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. Those passes will assist optimize the orbit, however they’ll additionally enable JUICE to take a look at Europa and Callisto, observing their icy shells and measuring their inside construction, earlier than shifting into orbit round Ganymede for the rest of the mission.
All three icy moons are thought to include oceans of liquid water, so considered one of JUICE’s fundamental objectives is to characterise these oceans: how deep they’re buried underneath the ice, the place they’re situated, and whether or not they may need the appropriate situations to harbour life. It will carry a set of 10 superior scientific devices to look at the moons extra rigorously than ever earlier than – plus observations of Jupiter itself – digging in to the opportunity of life not solely in our personal photo voltaic system, but in addition round comparable planets orbiting distant stars.
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Source: www.newscientist.com