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NASA's Europa Clipper Builds Hardware, Moves Toward Assembly – NASA's Europa Clipper
Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moon Confirmed

A full-scale prototype antenna, which at 10 feet tall is the same height as a standard basketball hoop, is in the Experimental Test Range (ETR) at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Europa Clipper High Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing at Langley

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Spacecraft Makers: Testing Europa Clipper's Magnetometer

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Europa Clipper Vault Plate Installed

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Juno Observes Jupiter, Io and Europa – NASA's Europa Clipper
https://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu

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A new NASA study offers an explanation of how quakes could be the source of the mysteriously smooth terrain on moons circling Jupiter and Saturn. 

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U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, who is known for work that explores the human connection to the natural world, is crafting a new poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.

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La poetisa laureada estadounidense Ada Limón, conocida por su trabajo que explora la conexión humana con el mundo natural, está escribiendo un nuevo poema dedicado a la misión Europa Clipper de la NASA.

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How will Europa Clipper see through Europa's thick ice shell to study the moon's ocean?

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Parallel ice ridges, a common feature on Jupiter’s moon Europa, are also found on Greenland’s ice sheet.

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Poised for Science: NASA's Europa Clipper Instruments Are All Aboard – NASA's Europa Clipper
A gantlet of tests prepared the spacecraft for its challenging trip to the Jupiter system, where it will explore the icy moon Europa and its subsurface ocean.

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When it launches in October, NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a richly layered dispatch that includes more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public.

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Cuando quedan menos de nueve meses en la cuenta regresiva para su lanzamiento, la misión Europa Clipper de la NASA ha superado un hito importante: sus instrumentos científicos han sido incorporados a la enorme nave espacial, que es ensamblada en el Laboratorio de Propulsión a Chorro (JPL, por sus siglas en inglés) de la NASA en el sur de California.

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Six weeks remain for you to add your name to a microchip that will ride aboard the spacecraft.

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La NASA ha lanzado un nuevo sitio web en español para invitar al público a enviar sus nombres a bordo de Europa Clipper, una misión que iniciará su viaje a la luna de Júpiter Europa en octubre de 2024.

NASA invita a hispanohablantes a enviar sus nombres en Europa Clipper

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Introduction
Does Europa truly have a liquid water ocean beneath its icy shell? Does the ocean spew into space where the spacecraft can directly sample it? What materials other than ice are on Europa’s icy surface? How does Jupiter’s relentless radiation affect surface materials? Ultraviolet data will allow scientists to answer some of those questions by identifying Europa’s materials more accurately than ever before.
A prism can separate visible light into a rainbow-like projection of its colors, or wavelengths. Scientists can do the same for ultraviolet light. Europa Clipper’s Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) collects ultraviolet light with a telescope and separates its wavelengths with an optical grating. Scientists analyze images of that light to identify what substances are made of.
Quick Facts
Quick Facts

Mass
19.6 kilograms

Operating Power
8.5 Watts

Dimensions
35.7 centimeters x 36.2 centimeters x 15.8 centimeters

Spectral Range
55 - 210 nanometers

Spectral Resolution
<0.6 nanometers (point source), <1.2 nanometers (extended source); resolving power λ/Δλ= 220

Spatial Resolution
NASA’s Webb Finds Carbon Source on Surface of Jupiter’s Moon Europa - NASA
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The best guess for this medium is a salty water ocean since their tenuous atmospheres and surfaces can be ruled out as adequate conductors. This is, in fact, what led astronomers to the conclusion that these moons (Ganymede too) had sub surface salt water oceans, heightening the possibilities for the existence of life! These water reservoirs are kept liquid by radioactive decay (in the case of Callisto) and both radioactive decay and tidal friction (in the case of Europa). There may also be small concentrations of ammonia in these sub-surface oceans which could reduce their freezing point by as much as 100 degrees Celsius. Some doubt remains as to whether Europa also has a weak internally generated magnetic field.

Jupiter's moon Ganymede

Results from the Galileo magnetometer and plasma wave instruments suggest Ganymede has an internally generated dipole magnetic field and substantial magnetosphere, registering values of over 1,000 nT (nano Teslas) near the poles vs a background field of only about 100 nT. Ganymede also has a saline ocean residing more than 100 miles below its icy, frozen surface. Discovery of this ocean, from Galileo magnetometer data, was a bit more difficult because its slowly oscillating magnetic signature is dwarfed by Ganymede's internally generated field.

Jupiter's moon Io

Io is believed to have a giant iron core that extends to 1/2 the diameter of the moon. The closest to Jupiter of the four Galilean satellites, it experiences tremendous tidal heating lending in part to its tremendous geologic activity (volcanoes!). Modeling of Io's interior suggests the core is overlaid by a layer of molten rock and surface crust and we know it's interior is still hot because it has volcanoes! With a rotation rate of only 42 hours, the stage should be set for rotating conducting material within the moon that could generate a magnetic field. Galileo's magnetometers detected, however, not an increase in magnetic field activity but a drastic drop (about 40%) in the background Jovian magnetic field strength as the spacecraft neared Io. So, it was thought that Io might be generating a global magnetosphere that shields the moon from Jupiter's strong magnetic field.
Europa Glows: Radiation Does a Bright Number on Jupiter's Moon – NASA's Europa Clipper
Imagine a moon that glows continuously, even on its nightside - the side facing away from the Sun.
"If Europa weren't under this radiation, it would look the way our moon looks to us - dark on the shadowed side," Gudipati said. "But because it's bombarded by the radiation from Jupiter, it glows in the dark."
Set to launch in the mid-2020s, NASA's upcoming flagship mission Europa Clipper will observe the moon's surface in multiple flybys while orbiting Jupiter. Mission scientists are reviewing the authors' findings to evaluate if a glow would be detectable by the spacecraft's science instruments. It's possible that information gathered by the spacecraft could be matched with the measurements in the new research to identify the salty components on the moon's surface or narrow down what they might be.
"It's not often that you're in a lab and say, 'We might find this when we get there,'" Gudipati said. "Usually it's the other way around - you go there and find something and try to explain it in the lab. But our prediction goes back to a simple observation, and that's what science is about."
Missions such as Europa Clipper help contribute to the field of astrobiology, the interdisciplinary research on the variables and conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa's habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.
More information about Europa and Europa Clipper can be found here:
europa.nasa.gov

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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Europa Clipper's Surface Dust Analyzer Instrument Delivered to JPL – NASA's Europa Clipper
The instrument’s sensor head, which is coated with an extremely thin layer of 99.99% gold, is about the size of a marching drum and weighs nearly 35 pounds. As Europa Clipper flies by its namesake moon, SUDA will collect and analyze particles ejected from the moon’s surface by tiny meteorites. JPL scientist and SUDA co-investigator Murthy Gudipati compared the instrument to a shark swimming with its mouth open. Scientists can also use data from the instrument to track where on the surface those particles launched from.
Collecting and analyzing tiny particles ejected from Europa’s surface

Europa Clipper’s SUrface Dust Analyzer (SUDA) sensor head is shown in a clean room at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Credit: NASA/CU Boulder/Glenn Asakawa 

Scientists have long had their eyes on Europa. This ice-covered sphere is slightly smaller than Earth’s own moon, and only the fourth largest of Jupiter’s moons behind Ganymede, Callisto, and Io. Underneath its miles-thick layer of ice, however, researchers suspect that Europa could hold more than twice the saltwater of all of Earth’s oceans combined—an ocean that might also carry ingredients necessary to sustain living organisms, including organic molecules like amino acids.
Europa Clipper is not a life-finding mission. But it will conduct a detailed investigation of the moon and, among other goals, determine if those key ingredients for life are present.
Scott Tucker, the SUDA project manager at LASP, explained that micrometeorites are constantly pinging the surface of Europa. In the process, they kick up tiny particles from the moon’s surface, sometimes ejecting these bits of moon stuff several miles into space. Researchers estimate that roughly half a ton of material surrounds Europa at all times.
SUDA will use its wide mouth to capture those particles. These tiny grains will be moving at relative speeds of more than 10,000 miles per hour—so fast that when they hit the target that sits at the back of the instrument, they will vaporize on impact.
Old Data Reveal New Evidence of Europa Plumes – NASA's Europa Clipper
Old Data Reveal New Evidence of Europa Plumes – NASA's Europa Clipper

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| May 14, 2018

Old Data Reveal New Evidence of Europa Plumes

Artist’s illustration of Jupiter and Europa (in the foreground) with the Galileo spacecraft after its pass through a plume erupting from Europa’s surface.

Scientists re-examining data from an old mission bring new insights to the tantalizing question of whether Jupiter’s moon Europa has the ingredients to support life. The data provide independent evidence that the moon’s subsurface liquid water reservoir may be venting plumes of water vapor above its icy shell.
Data collected by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 1997 were put through new and advanced computer models to untangle a mystery -- a brief, localized bend in the magnetic field -- that had gone unexplained until now. Previous ultraviolet images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 2012 suggested the presence of plumes, but this new analysis used data collected much closer to the source and is considered strong, corroborating support for plumes. The findings appear in Monday’s issue of the journal Nature Astronomy.
The research was led by Xianzhe Jia, a space physicist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and lead author of the journal article. Jia also is co-investigator for two instruments that will travel aboard Europa Clipper, NASA’s upcoming mission to explore the moon’s potential habitability.
“The data were there, but we needed sophisticated modeling to make sense of the observation,” Jia said.

Jia’s team was inspired to dive back into the Galileo data by Melissa McGrath of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. A member of the Europa Clipper science team, McGrath delivered a presentation to fellow team scientists, highlighting other Hubble observations of Europa.
“One of the locations she mentioned rang a bell. Galileo actually did a flyby of that location, and it was the closest one we ever had. We realized we had to go back,” Jia said.
Icy Moonquakes: Surface Shaking Could Trigger Landslides – NASA's Europa Clipper
NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission, bound for Jupiter’s moon Europa in 2024, will give the research a significant boost, providing imagery and other science data. After reaching Jupiter in 2030, the spacecraft will orbit the gas giant and conduct about 50 flybys of Europa. The mission has a sophisticated payload of nine science instruments to determine if Europa, which scientists believe contains a deep internal ocean beneath an outer ice shell, has conditions that could be suitable for life.
“It was surprising to find out more about how powerful moonquakes could be and that it could be simple for them to move debris downslope,” said co-author Robert Pappalardo, project scientist of Europa Clipper at JPL, which manages the mission.
Especially surprising were the modeling results for tectonic activity and quakes on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, a body that has less than 3% of the surface area of Europa and about 1/650 that of Earth. “Because of that moon’s small gravity, quakes on tiny Enceladus could be large enough to fling icy debris right off the surface and into space like a wet dog shaking itself off,” Pappalardo said.
When it comes to Europa, the high-resolution images gathered by Europa Clipper will help scientists determine the power of past moonquakes. Researchers will be able to apply the recent findings to understand whether quakes have moved ice and other surface materials and by how much. Images from the ESA (European Space Agency) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission will offer similar information about Europa’s neighboring Jovian moon, Ganymede.
“We hope to gain a better understanding of the geological processes that have shaped icy moons over time and to what extent their surfaces may still be active today,” Pappalardo said.
More About the Mission
Europa Clipper’s main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with their composition and geology.
Europa Clipper Scale Model - 3D Print – NASA's Europa Clipper
An engineering model of the focal plane module for Europa Clipper’s E-THEMIS instrument. 

Europa Clipper E-THEMIS Thermal Camera Focal Plane Module

This simulation shows possible spectroscopy results of Europa’s water plumes, obtained using the Webb telescope’s NIRSpec instrument.

Possible Spectroscopy Results of Europa Using Webb

Dark and splotchy-looking terrain is evidence of some of the most recent geologic activity on Europa.

Chaotic Terrain on Europa

Europa Clipper's propulsion module rotates on a stand in the cleanroom at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Europa Clipper Propulsion Module

This view of the Conamara Chaos region on Jupiter's moon Europa taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft shows an area where the icy surface has been broken into many separate plates that have moved late...

Chaotic Terrain on Europa in Very High Resolution

This complex area on the side of Europa which faces away from Jupiter shows several types of features which are formed by disruptions of Europa's icy crust.

Scrambled Ice

Europa Clipper’s 28-foot (8.5-meter) magnetometer boom is deployed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Europa Clipper Magnetometer Boom Deployed

Europa Clipper rolls into the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy Space Center on May 23, 2024.

Europa Clipper Rolls Into KSC's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility

Engineers and technicians install a high-gain antenna on NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft.

Europa Clipper's High-Gain Antenna Installed

This video shows the installation of one of the main computers of the spacecraft.

Main Computer Installation

We are on the cusp of exploring what may be the best place in our solar system to look for life beyond Earth.

Europa Clipper: Journey to an Ocean World Poster

This color composite view combines violet, green, and infrared images of Jupiter's intriguing moon, Europa, for a view of the moon in natural color (left) and in enhanced color designed to bring ou...

Europa Global Views in Natural and Enhanced Colors

This animation segment shows the deployment of NASA’s Europa Clipper ECM boom after launch.

Mission Animation: ECM Boom Deployment (Close)
Icy Moonquakes: Surface Shaking Could Trigger Landslides – NASA's Europa Clipper
On the surfaces of icy moons such as Europa, Ganymede, and Enceladus, it’s common to see steep ridges surrounded by relatively flat, smooth areas. Scientists have theorized that these spots result from liquid that flows out of icy volcanoes. But how that process works when the surface temperatures are so cold and inhospitable to fluids has remained a mystery.
A simple explanation outlined in the study doesn’t involve liquid on the surface. Scientists measured the dimensions of the steep ridges, which are believed to be tectonic fault scarps (like those on Earth) – steep slopes caused when the surface breaks along a fault line and one side drops. By applying the measurements to seismic models, they estimated the power of past moonquakes and found they could be strong enough to lift debris that then falls downhill, where it spreads out, smoothing the landscape.
“We found the surface shaking from moonquakes would be enough to cause surface material to rush downhill in landslides. We’ve estimated the size of moonquakes and how big the landslides could be,” said lead author Mackenzie Mills, a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who conducted the work during a series of summer internships at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “This helps us understand how landslides might be shaping moon surfaces over time.”

Another image of Jupiter’s moon Europa captured in the 1990s by NASA’s Galileo shows possible fault scarps (like those found on Earth when tectonic activity breaks the crust) adjacent to smooth areas that may have been produced by landslides. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DLR 

Upcoming Investigations
NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission, bound for Jupiter’s moon Europa in 2024, will give the research a significant boost, providing imagery and other science data. After reaching Jupiter in 2030, the spacecraft will orbit the gas giant and conduct about 50 flybys of Europa. The mission has a sophisticated payload of nine science instruments to determine if Europa, which scientists believe contains a deep internal ocean beneath an outer ice shell, has conditions that could be suitable for life.