Mission to find life under Jupiter moon’s ice

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will explore Jupiter’s moon Europa and determine whether the ocean suspected of being beneath its icy crust is habitable


After reaching Jupiter by 2030, probe will make 49 flybys of Europa,
as close as 25km, to map virtually entire moon


STRUCTURE OF EUROPA

Ice crust
15-25km thick

Ocean
60-150km deep

Interior
Silicate rock

Core
Iron

Diameter: 3,138km – roughly same size as Earth’s moon


Payload:
Includes cameras and spectrometers to understand moon’s surface and atmosphere, ice-penetrating radar to map ice shell in 3D and magnetometer to characterise ocean

30m
Human to scale


INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE

CHEMISTRY
Building blocks for life – such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen – likely exist on Europa, stemming from moon’s formation as well as asteroid and comet impacts

WATER: Scientists believe Europa’s salty ocean contains twice as much water than all of Earth’s oceans combined


ENERGY
Chemical energy sources needed for life, such as surface radiation from Jupiter and interactions between water and rocky seafloor,
may occur


Water plumes
SURFACE 
ICE
Sub-surface lakes
OCEAN
Hydrothermal vent activity
ROCK INTERIOR


Artwork not to scale


Source: NASA
Pictures: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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