U of A’s role in exploring Europa, Jupiter’s mysterious & icy moon

With the University of Arizona’s help, NASA launched Europa Clipper to study Jupiter’s moon, using nine instruments to search for signs of life.

NASA’s largest-ever solar system explorer, the Europa Clipper, launched on October 14 from Cape Canaveral, marking the start of an ambitious mission to study Jupiter’s intriguing moon. According to a University of Arizona News article, several U of A scientists are playing crucial roles in this groundbreaking project that could revolutionize our understanding of potentially habitable worlds.

The science behind the mission

Europa’s icy surface conceals what scientists believe is a vast liquid ocean, making it a prime candidate in the search for extraterrestrial life. The spacecraft will make 49 flybys of Europa, carrying nine scientific instruments to study the moon’s composition and potential habitability. The mission aims to answer fundamental questions about Europa’s ocean depth, ice shell thickness, and potential for harboring complex organic molecules – all crucial factors in determining if this distant moon could support life.

U of A’s expertise in imaging and radar technology

The university’s Lunar and Planetary Lab team, led by Regents Professor Alfred McEwen, will focus on processing data from the Europa Imaging System (EIS). This sophisticated dual-camera system will capture unprecedented high-resolution images of Europa’s surface features, including its mysterious valleys, ridges, and dark bands. At its closest approach of just 50 kilometers from the surface, EIS will be able to capture details as small as 50 centimeters.

Research scientist Sarah Sutton expressed particular enthusiasm about the potential for groundbreaking discoveries. “It will be exciting to test our ideas about Europa’s surface evolution and to discover new things about this intriguing ocean world,” she said, noting the possibility of observing active surface changes and erupting plumes of gas and dust.

Deep exploration capabilities

The mission’s capabilities extend far below Europa’s surface. Associate Professor Lynn Carter is working with REASON, an ice-penetrating radar that will study Europa’s crust up to 30 kilometers deep. “Our observations will place real constraints on the nature of the icy crust and how it changes through time and interacts with the subsurface ocean,” Carter explained, emphasizing the importance of this data in determining Europa’s habitability potential.

Technical achievements and timeline

The Europa Clipper represents several engineering milestones, including NASA’s largest solar arrays ever used for an interplanetary mission. The spacecraft, weighing 13,000 pounds at launch, spans 100 feet from end to end with its arrays extended. It will travel 1.8 billion miles before reaching Jupiter in April 2030.

The mission brings together multiple NASA centers and research institutions, with significant U of A involvement – the university’s influence extends beyond current faculty to include at least 20 alumni working on various aspects of the project, including Elizabeth Turtle, the principal investigator on the EIS camera, who received her doctorate from U of A’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

This collaborative mission, managed by multiple prestigious institutions, including Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, represents one of the most sophisticated attempts to understand the potential for life beyond Earth in our solar system.

This story was generated in part by AI and edited by The Copper Courier staff.

This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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