Is there life on Jupiter? ESA’s space probe Juice supposed to provide answers

European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch a space probe in 2022 to explore Jupiter and its icy satellites which orbit around it. The mission aims at searching signs of life.

Juice probe aims at finding life on Jupiter and its moons. Credit: jupitertoday.com

Spacecraft Juice (JUpiter Icy moons Explorer) is due to lift off aboard an Ariane rocket from Kourou space center in French Guiana, and will reach Jupiter’s orbit only after eight years.

For at least three years, the probe will carry out detailed observations of the system consisting of Jupiter and its satellites, which is according to ESA experts resembles a “miniature solar system”.

Juice will pay particular attention on the study of the atmosphere of this giant gas planet – the largest in our solar system – as well as Jupiter’s moons, called “Galileans”. Io (and its volcanoes), Europa (and its ice), Ganymede and Callisto (made up of ice and rock) – all of them could accommodate internal oceans and therefore some forms of life.

“We will study the conditions that could make these satellites be inhabited,” said Fabio Favata, a management director of ESA’s scientific program.

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Juice probe won’t descend on Jupiter’s moons, but will use a series of radars to search premises under their surfaces.

In 2011, astronomers said that satellite Europa could hide a large stretch of water with an area equivalent to the Great Lakes of North America.

Construction of Juice probe, its launch and mining operations have an estimated cost of 830 million euros.

Besides this amount, the mission needs additional 200-250 million euros, amount to be paid by the ESA’s 19 member states and their international partners in order to fit Juice with the required scientific instruments.

Committee of the ESA scientific program will release a final opinion on this mission in 2014.

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