[NASA shared this image of Europa’s cracked and streaked surface that Juno spacecraft captured on Sept. 29, 2022 on Instagram Thursday Oct 05, 2023.]
Washington: While we are still exploring traces of water on the lunar surface, it has now been revealed that Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, may have a large saltwater ocean believed to be holding twice as much water as Earth’s ocean.
Planet Jupiter has a total of 95 recognised moons and Europa is one of them.
Based on the data gathered by NASA's Galileo, Hubble, Juno spacecraft and James Webb Space (JWS) Telescope, the scientists Europa, may have the ocean enormously filled with saltwater tucked under its icy, cratered crust.
Sharing these details on social media site Instagram, NASA has also published an image of Europa’s surface captured by Juno spacecraft.
“Juno spacecraft captured this image of Europa’s cracked and streaked surface on Sept. 29, 2022, at an altitude of 945 miles (1,521 km)”, the U.S. Space Agency wrote.
“Juno has been studying the Jupiter system since 2016, including Europa, one of the most promising places in our solar system to search for life beyond Earth”, NASA said in the Instagram post on Thursday October 05, 2023.
“An array of telescopes and spacecraft have studied the Jovian moon, including Galileo, Hubble, Juno, and most recently JWS Telescope, which detected carbon dioxide on the moon Europa”, NASA said in the Instagram post.
NASA further said that Europa Clipper, a new mission to study the moon Europa, will be launched in October 2024.
Europa Clipper is an interplanetary spacecraft that will study the Galilean moon Europa through repeated flybys while in orbit around Jupiter and explore investigate whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life, NASA said.
“The mission will send a highly capable, radiation-tolerant spacecraft into a long, looping orbit around Jupiter to perform repeated close flybys of the icy moon”, the leading space agency said.
NASA had earlier also launched a campaign offering the public the opportunity to have their name stencilled onto a microchip, which will ride aboard its Europa Clipper spacecraft. The campaign is ongoing, and those who want to send their names can do even now, NASA said in its Insta post.
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