Water jets on Jupiter moon could help to find aliens says expert

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Various other worlds in our Solar System have been proposed to be potentially capable — or once capable — of harbouring extra-terrestrial life. These include, in the past, Mercury and Mars, which are believed to have once played host to water ice and liquid water — and, in the present, the dwarf planet of Ceres that lies in the asteroid belt between the Red Planet and Jupiter and has a thin water-vapour atmosphere. Among the most promising candidates, however, are the large icy moons of Jupiter, three of which — Callisto, Europa and Ganymede — are believed may well have vast, miles-deep subsurface oceans capable of supporting life. In fact, in 2012, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope detected what experts believed may be plumes of water erupting from Europa’s buried ocean.

In a press release, the ESA said that Juice “will make detailed observations of the giant gas planet Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons.

“The mission will characterise these three moons as both planetary objects and possible habitats, explore Jupiter’s complex environment in-depth, and study the wider Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giants across the Universe.”

The Juice mission, they added, will address two of the core themes of the ESA’s Cosmic Vision Programme, specifically: “How does the Solar System work?” and “What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life?”

To this end, the probe will be examining both the atmosphere, magnetic environment, ring system and satellites of Jupiter — as well as the habitable zones of Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, characterising their oceans, icy shells, surfaces and activity.

In fact, Juice will be the first spacecraft ever to enter orbit around a moon in the outer Solar System — specifically, Ganymede, where the probe will conclude its 11-year journey.

Data collected should help scientists better understand how gas giants form, how Jupiter’s complex environment has shaped its moons and vice versa, the nature of the subsurface oceans on the Jovian moons and whether such now or once supported life.

Juice is currently planned to launch on top of an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, South America between April 5–25, 2023.

The ESA added: “Juice will spend approximately eight years cruising to Jupiter, during which it will complete fly-bys of Venus, Earth and the Earth-Moon system.

“It will reach Jupiter in July 2031, six months before entering orbit around Jupiter, Juice will begin its nominal science phase.

“The spacecraft will go on to spend many months orbiting Jupiter, completing fly-bys of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, and finally conducting an orbital tour of Ganymede.”

According to the ESA, Juice will be carrying the most powerful geophysical, remote sensing and so-called in situ payload compliment “ever flown to the outer Solar System”.

The probe’s remote sensing package will be able to perform both regular and spectral imaging from ultraviolet up to sub-millimetre wavelengths.

A laser altimeter and radar sounder will allow Juice to study each moon’s surface and subsurface — while a radio science experiment called 3GM will allow the spacecraft to probe both the atmospheres and gravity fields of Jupiter and its satellites.

The “in situ” package, meanwhile, comprises a suite of instruments designed to study the local electromagnetic fields, particle environment and plasma Juice will encounter.

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According to ESA engineers, Juice is presently in a “once in an Earth time” configuration at its present home at the Airbus Defence and Space cleanrooms in Toulouse, France.

All of the spacecraft’s instruments are now integrated into the probe with the 52-feet-long “Radar for Icy Moons Exploration” (RIME) instrument fully deployed for testing.

Overall, Juice will weigh in at around 5,260 lbs (2,400 kg), and sport an 8.2-foot-long high gain antenna for relaying data to researchers back on Earth.

The spacecraft will be powered by 10 solar panels — each roughly 8 by 11 feet in surface area — which will be deployed in two cross-shaped sets of five on either side of the probe.

To save fuel, Juice will be performing a special flyby of the Earth–Moon system — known as a “Lunar–Earth gravity assist” — in late 2024 which will help sling it on its circuitous way to the outer reaches of our Solar System.

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