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Moons of Jupiter, right here we come. After the unique launch was postponed by a day on account of a danger of lightning strikes, the European House Company (ESA) is sending its orbiter on an 8-year journey in the direction of Jupiter, the place it can discover three of the fuel large’s 4 giant moons. The orbiter, known as the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is now scheduled to launch on 14 April from Kourou, French Guiana.
If all goes to plan, it can launch at 12:14 UTC atop an Ariane 5 rocket. The journey to Jupiter isn’t a direct one, although – at launch, the spacecraft gained’t have sufficient pace to go straight there. As an alternative, it can take a circuitous route, making a sequence of shut passes by Earth and Venus over the course of the subsequent six years. These passes could have a form of slingshot effect, rushing up the orbiter to get it to the Jupiter system.
As soon as it will get there in 2031, it can carry out one other sequence of shut passes, this time to Jupiter’s moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. These passes will assist optimize the orbit, however they’ll additionally permit JUICE to take a look at Europa and Callisto, observing their icy shells and measuring their inside construction, earlier than shifting into orbit around Ganymede for the rest of the mission.
All three icy moons are thought to include oceans of liquid water, so one in all JUICE’s predominant objectives is to characterise these oceans: how deep they’re buried underneath the ice, the place they’re positioned, and whether or not they might need the right conditions to harbour life. It is going to carry a collection of 10 superior scientific devices to look at the moons extra fastidiously than ever earlier than – plus observations of Jupiter itself – digging in to the potential for life not solely in our personal photo voltaic system, but in addition round comparable planets orbiting distant stars.
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