In a little over six months, a highly anticipated NASA mission is expected to take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida (United States) towards Jupiter.
After positioning itself in orbit around the giant planet in April 2030, Europa Clipper will approach in March 2031 a satellite of the latter, Europa, an “ocean world” which is suspected of being home to primitive life forms.
With the main objective of gauging whether this moon has the conditions necessary for the development of microorganisms, the probe will make a total of 49 flybys, at an altitude of 25 km, of its final destination.
She could then come close to the tops of gigantic geysers of frozen water.
Enough to go as far as detecting possible traces of organisms?
A study, published this Friday March 22 in the journal Science Advances, estimates that it has the capabilities.
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