[ad_1]
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has made its closest approach to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in more than 20 years.
Juno whizzed past 222 miles from Europa on Thursday, where ocean currents are thought to be under its thick frozen crust, raising the possibility of underwater life.
Scientists hoped for luck and observed a plume of water, similar in size to Earth’s moon, that may have been ejected from Europa’s surface.
“We have to be in the right place at the right time, but if we’re that lucky, it’s definitely a home run,” Juno’s chief scientist, Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a statement.
John Bouldy, deputy mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, expects the spacecraft to “squeak at pretty fast speeds,” with relative speeds approaching 15 miles per second (23.6 kilometers per second).
Images should be available by Friday, NASA said.
The latest observations will help NASA plan its Europa Clipper mission to launch in 2024.
The European Space Agency also plans to make a close encounter with the Jupiter Ice Moon probe, or Jupiter, which will lift off next year.
NASA’s former Galileo spacecraft still holds the record for the flyby of Europa, passing within 218 miles (351 kilometers) in 2000.
[ad_2]
Source link