Jupiter Mission Announced by ESA to Study Possibilites of Life
- 12 years ago
Jupiter Mission Announced by ESA to Study Possibilites of Life - as part of the news and politics series by GeoBeats.
Did you know Jupiter was called a wandering star in prehistoric times?
Today, we know relatively more about Jupiter and its moons but still our knowledge is very limited. On May 2nd, 2012, the European Space Agency announced its plans for a 2022 mission to explore Jupiter and its icy moons.
Dubbed, JUICE , it will reach its destination by 2030 - about 8 years from its takeoff in 2022. The mission will cost around 1 billion euros and will be the first european-led mission of its kind to venture to the outer solar system.
Using cameras, spectrometers and an ice-penetrating radar, the mission’s purpose is to explore Jupiter’s moons and study the surface and oceans for possible habitable conditions.
There's particular interest in Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. It is believed to have an ocean underneath its icy surface and its own magnetic field.
Until Galileo concluded in 1610 that objects orbiting Jupiter were its moons, they were considered to be stars. And that discovery was the first example of objects not revolving around Earth - in support of the revolutionary theory at that time by Copernicus that the Earth was not the center of Universe.
Jupiter itself has always been a source of fascination. Dubbed, the King of the Gods in ancient Roman mythology, it's mass is 318 times that of Earth. It has the great red spot - a storm that has been going on for the last 200 years and the area of the storm is massive enough include 3 planets as large as Earth.
Did you know Jupiter was called a wandering star in prehistoric times?
Today, we know relatively more about Jupiter and its moons but still our knowledge is very limited. On May 2nd, 2012, the European Space Agency announced its plans for a 2022 mission to explore Jupiter and its icy moons.
Dubbed, JUICE , it will reach its destination by 2030 - about 8 years from its takeoff in 2022. The mission will cost around 1 billion euros and will be the first european-led mission of its kind to venture to the outer solar system.
Using cameras, spectrometers and an ice-penetrating radar, the mission’s purpose is to explore Jupiter’s moons and study the surface and oceans for possible habitable conditions.
There's particular interest in Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. It is believed to have an ocean underneath its icy surface and its own magnetic field.
Until Galileo concluded in 1610 that objects orbiting Jupiter were its moons, they were considered to be stars. And that discovery was the first example of objects not revolving around Earth - in support of the revolutionary theory at that time by Copernicus that the Earth was not the center of Universe.
Jupiter itself has always been a source of fascination. Dubbed, the King of the Gods in ancient Roman mythology, it's mass is 318 times that of Earth. It has the great red spot - a storm that has been going on for the last 200 years and the area of the storm is massive enough include 3 planets as large as Earth.