Name: How NASA Plans to Discover Alien Life on Jupiter’s Moon, Europa | Countdown To Launch
Uploaded: 2020-03-28T09:02:45.000Z
Duration: 4 min 37 s
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The search for extraterrestrial life extends into the far reaches of our galaxy and while

several distant exoplanets are strong candidates to maybe host life,

what if the most promising destination is right in our celestial backyard?

The perfect conditions for alien life, might just be hidden under the icy crust of Jupiter’s

moon, Europa, and since it’s in our solar system, we can actually go to it.

A new mission from NASA just got the green light to proceed with building an in-depth,

investigative orbiter named Europa Clipper.

This will be the first time we send a spacecraft to a moon other than our own, and perhaps,

uncover that we might not be alone in the universe.

So NASA has reason to believe that Europa is potentially habitable because of the

information they’ve received from the Hubble Space Telescope, and from previous space missions.

These spacecraft weren’t destined for Europa, but they took measurements of the moon’s

It was from one of these flybys that the strongest piece of evidence of Europa’s ocean emerged.

The Galileo mission measured a deep magnetic field that could only be produced by an electrically

conductive fluid under the moon’s 15 to 25 kilometers thick icy layer.

Scientists estimate, even though the moon is 10% smaller than our own, the predicted

salt water ocean underneath could be twice the volume of all of Earth’s oceans combined.

Now, life as we know it needs at least three requirements: liquid water, the right chemical

So while this icy world probably has water, and possible elements, it’s been hard to nail down an

energy source on Europa, but NASA’s orbiter is prepared to find it.

The Europa Clipper’s payload will be stocked with nine different instruments.

Each built by researchers across the U.S. and curated by NASA specifically for this

Some of the equipment are systems like cameras and spectrometers that aim to map and produce

But other specialized machinery includes a dual-frequency radar instrument that can penetrate

the thickness of Europa’s icy shell in search for subsurface lakes—like the ones found

There will also be a magnetometer device and a plasma instrument that together, will measure

Europa’s magnetic field and the ocean’s depth and salinity. And even more tools will be

searching for water plumes erupting from the moon’s surface, and will be able to detect even

These droplets might be connected to the hidden subsurface ocean.

Every instrument onboard is designed to paint a detailed picture of the moon’s composition

from the surface to the atmosphere, without actually landing on it.

In fact, the spacecraft won’t be orbiting Europa at all.

The moon sits within one of Jupiter’s intense bands of radiation.

And although Clipper is armed to withstand some radioactive emissions, it wouldn’t last

Instead, the orbiter will be using Jupiter’s gravitational pull to loop around Europa on

Now, just to be clear, at the very least, if scientists do find life, they are expecting

it to be most likely in the form of tiny microbes.

Maybe similar to the extremophile creatures we have on Earth that thrive in subterranean

volcanoes, deep-sea vents, or arid deserts.

There could be something more complex to find, but at the moment, there’s a bigger hurdle

still facing this mission; how will it get there?

According to NASA, the Europa Clipper remains on target for a launch between 2023 and 2025.

The question is whether it will fly on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which may not

be ready in the next few years, or if it will ride atop a commercial rocket, like SpaceX’s Falcon

Heavy or United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy.

But commercial options lead to more travel time in space, which Clipper might not be

Timelines aren’t matching up and the politics are still murky for this pivotal mission,

which makes the anticipation all the more nail-biting.

Because of the challenges of distance and radiation, paired with the enormously tantalizing

idea of finding life beyond Earth, Europa Clipper is maybe one of the most ambitious missions

We still have some years before anything is leaving the ground, but we’ll be keeping a watchful eye

on this mission that could change our perspective of life in the universe forever.

Europa Clipper is exciting, so exciting in fact that people are pushing to send a lander next!

If you want more launch updates in your day, check out the Countdown to Launch playlist here

and subscribe to Seeker for all your rocket needs.

Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.

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How NASA Plans to Discover Alien Life on Jupiter’s Moon, Europa | Countdown To Launch

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