Europa Clipper Launched to Explore the Potential for Life in Ice-covered Ocean | WPN World People News

NASA successfully launched the Europa Clipper probe on the 14th local time (around midnight on the 15th Taipei time). Its mission is to explore Jupiter's moon Europa, an ice-covered satellite believed to potentially harbor a liquid ocean beneath its surface, with conditions that might be suitable for life. The $5.2 billion mission has been over a decade in the making. Europa Clipper is expected to arrive at Europa in April 2030, where it will immediately begin an in-depth environmental investigation.

The Europa Clipper will conduct a three-year mission, during which it will fly by Europa up to 49 times, using a variety of scientific instruments to probe the environment beneath the ice. It is equipped with nine instruments, including an ice-penetrating radar that scientists hope will help analyze the thickness of the ice, its geological structure, and the composition of the ocean. This will further determine whether Europa could be a habitable environment for life.

Scientists believe that beneath Europa's ice may lie an ocean as deep as 60 to 150 kilometers, with a water volume possibly twice that of Earth’s. Geysers on Europa’s surface have already been detected by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Europa Clipper will pass through these saltwater plumes in the future to directly analyze the composition of the ocean beneath the ice. The mission’s focus is not on directly finding life but rather on understanding whether Europa has the essential conditions to support life, such as water, energy, and the necessary chemical elements.

With the successful launch of Europa Clipper, NASA emphasizes that this mission will open a new chapter in the search for extraterrestrial life. If Europa’s environment proves to be habitable, future missions will explore whether life truly exists on this distant moon.