مهمة للبحث عن حياة على أقمار المشتري الجليدية infographic
Graphic shows details of the JUICE mission.
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فضاء

مهمة للبحث عن حياة على أقمار المشتري الجليدية

By Jordi Bou

April 13, 2023 - الرحلة الأوروبية التي تبلغ كلفتها 1.6 مليار يورو إلى الفضاء السحيق ستستكشف المحيطات المتجمدة في غانيميد ويوروبا وكاليستو للبحث عن علامات على وجود حياة خارج الأرض.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, is slated to launch from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, onboard an Ariane 5 rocket.

The six-tonne spacecraft will flying past Earth three times and Venus once, on a 6.6bn-km journey lasting more than eight years, before going into orbit around Jupiter in July 2031.

It will then settle permanently around Ganymede in late 2034. The aim of the mission is to find out if any of the moons are habitable and can support life.

Jupiter is one of the outer planets of our solar system, far away from the Sun.

Despite this, Jupiter’s moons are hotter than they should be at this distance from the Sun and scientists believe that this is because the gravitational pull from Jupiter on the moons results in a squeezing and pushing which heats them up.

This energy and warmth results in something else – water – and for scientists wherever there is water, there is an opening for life.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 11/04/2023; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: NASA, ESA
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