Europa

NASA Begins Mission To Find Life on Jupiter’s Moon

NASA has now begun its mission to learn if Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon could potentially harbor an ocean filled with alien life. So far, the mission is just in its early stages, but the agency has selected nine science instruments for the trip, which is a follow to the Galileo mission that found strong evidence that Europa could be concealing an ocean beneath its frozen crust.

See What Tools Made the Cut Aboard the Upcoming Europa Clipper Mission

What would you pack for the 390 million mile trip to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa? Last year, NASA posed that question to a bevy of scientists and after whittling down the final 33 proposals, they have decided on nine items that will rocket aboard the Europa Clipper, which is set to blast off sometime after 2020.

From the Surface of Jupiter's Moon—Europa Reveals Icy Glass

The European Space Agency (ESA) has just published a striking picture of Europa, Jupiter's icy moon. In the image the surface looks like shattered glass; it reveals many interlocking cracks in the moon's icy crust which were formed by an ocean below the moon's surface. Now a team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) led by planetary scientist Kevin Hand has identified the cracks as sea salt.
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