Explorador das luas geladas de Júpiter infographic
A infografia mostra os detalhes da missão JUICE.
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ESPAÇO

Missão para encontrar vida nas luas de Júpiter

By Jordi Bou

April 13, 2023 - A missão europeia de €1.600 milhões ao espaço profundo vai explorar os oceanos gelados de Ganimedes, Europa e Calisto para procurar sinais de vida extraterrestre.

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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