Jupiter's moon "Europa"/Official website, NASA
"Clipper Europa" - an advanced research spacecraft of the American Space Agency (NASA) - will embark in October 2024 on a fascinating journey to Europa, one of the most mysterious moons of Jupiter. In addition to the scientific goals, the spacecraft will carry a special item: a tantalum plate (a type of metal). which will serve as a kind of "message in a bottle".
Europa is the sixth moon of the planet Jupiter and the second of the Galilean moons (according to the degree of proximity to Jupiter). Its diameter is about 3,000 km, slightly smaller than the Earth's moon, and it is the sixth largest moon in the solar system.
Its surface is covered with relatively smooth ice, with dark lines crossing it, giving it a "young" appearance.
The reason for the smoothness of the surface may be a huge underground ocean of water, which is twice the size of the oceans on Earth.
The existence of such an ocean raises the possibility of life on Europa, making it one of the most fascinating destinations for space exploration.
Part of the metal plate/Official website, NASA
The launch, in collaboration with the SpaceX company owned by Elon Musk, is expected to provide a lot of information about the intriguing moon.
"Clipper Europe" aims to deepen the understanding and expand our knowledge of the potential for biological existence beyond Earth.
After a journey of 2.6 billion kilometers, the spacecraft will make 49 flybys near Europa to study its subsurface ocean, icy crust, thin atmosphere and environment.
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So what is hidden in the "message in a bottle"?
The plaque, measuring 18 by 28 centimeters, will have images and text on both sides.
It will include an engraving with five unique elements: a poem, a portrait of a scientist, a description of a bottle and two messages related to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life (SETI) program, which include the famous Drake formula and information about Waterhole - a specific range of radio frequencies considered ideal for communication between An asterisk due to their low background noise.
In addition, the outside of the plate displays images that emphasize the human connection to Europe, the names of more than 2.6 million people who sent their names to NASA, and includes recordings of the word "water" in 103 languages (including Hebrew, you can listen here). The recordings Translated into visual displays of sound waves, engraved on the tablet. In the center of the tablet appears a sign language symbol for the word "water".
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