The search for life on Jupiter’s moons begins

Later this morning (or maybe even as you’re reading this🤔), the European Space Agency is launching a spacecraft that will be the first in history to enter the orbit of a moon other than our own.

The $1.7 billion craft, called the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), will investigate three of Jupiter’s largest ice moons – Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto – for signs of extraterrestrial life after arriving at the planet in 2031. In other words, the JUICE is about to get loose.

🤔🪐 Why search on Jupiter’s moons?... While gas-giant planets like Jupiter have been deemed unable to support life, some of its moons are thought to contain huge oceans of liquid water beneath their icy surfaces (and could be habitable).

And unlike exploratory missions to Mars, which have focused on searching for signs of ancient life that’s long been extinct, astronomers believe one or more of Jupiter’s moons may be home to organisms that are still alive today – though they’d likely be tiny or single-celled (the first step of evolution).

At the top of astronomers’ hit-list: Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar System and also the only known moon with its own magnetic field.

• Similar to Earth’s magnetosphere, this field protects Ganymede’s surface from dangerous cosmic radiation. Meaning it has a higher chance of sustaining life than nearly all of the other celestial objects in our Solar System.

👀 Looking (way) ahead… If everything goes according to plan, the JUICE spacecraft will enter Ganymede’s orbit and begin searching for signs of life in 2034.