The JUICE mission to explore Jupiter’s ocean moons is about to launch

The European Space Agency (ESA) is sending an orbiter to discover Jupiter’s unusual moons. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is scheduled to launch on 13 April from Kourou, French Guiana, and start its eight-year journey to Jupiter.

The orbiter is designed to discover Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, three of Jupiter’s largest moons. It will make two shut passes by Europa and 12 by Callisto through the first part of its mission, from 2031 to 2034, after which orbit Ganymede for the rest of its mission.

While Ganymede could look like an unconventional selection – Jupiter’s smaller moon Europa is often considered extra more likely to have the suitable situations for all times – it’s the largest moon within the photo voltaic system, making it comparatively straightforward to achieve and orbit. Like Europa and Callisto, it’s thought to have a liquid ocean beneath its icy shell.

“Ganymede in precept is much less attention-grabbing than Europa, however as a result of it’s an even bigger moon, additionally doubtlessly with water inside, and with a magnetic discipline, Ganymede has loads of mysteries to resolve,” says ESA’s Olivier Witasse, the mission’s venture scientist. “One of the large questions is whether or not we might have round Jupiter a spot the place there may very well be liveable situations, and Ganymede is a type of locations.”

The probably liveable setting lies in Ganymede’s liquid ocean, which is considered the biggest within the photo voltaic system. But we all know little or no about it, so it’s unclear whether or not it might have the suitable situations for all times. JUICE will measure the water’s location, composition and depth within the hopes of discovering sufficient promise to warrant a future mission below the ice to search for precise indicators of life. “If you wish to search contained in the ocean, you must know the place the ocean is,” says Witasse.

JUICE’s measurements of the ocean might be aided by Ganymede’s internally generated magnetic discipline, the one one on any moon. Studying the magnetic discipline also needs to assist unravel Ganymede’s inside construction.

The mission may also intention to map all three moons and research the composition of their icy crusts, trying to find any indicators of geological exercise. It will use radar to penetrate the crusts and measure the depths of the moons’ seas and the way far underground they lie for the primary time.

Because the objective of the mission is partly to know the Jupiter system as an entire and the potential for all times round comparable exoplanets, JUICE may also check out the opposite moons from afar and make detailed observations of Jupiter itself. Those observations will concentrate on the planet’s highly effective magnetic discipline and the way it impacts the moons.

These measurements are anticipated to resolve a number of mysteries about Jupiter and its moons – if all goes effectively on the launch, the following step is a protracted wait. “The subsequent most fun part might be in 2031 after we arrive at Jupiter and we begin the deliberate mission,” says Witasse. “We begin to get a bit bit excited, however that’s nonetheless eight years from now.”