Jupiter Archives

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Europa Clipper Astrobiology Explorer Sets Sail

by Keith CowingOctober 15, 2024October 15, 2024

NASA’s Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. […]

Panel A: crust age and thickness for 15 different zones of Loki Patera. Panel B: location of the zones chosen for the analysis. The color of the zones is coded according to the age of the crust, as indicated by the color bar to the right. The reference time for the crust age is set to the final observation epoch: April 9, 2024. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Io, Jupiter, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Status Report

Volcano World Survey: Observations Of Loki Patera By Juno During Close Flybys

by Keith CowingOctober 15, 2024October 15, 2024

We used data from the Juno spacecraft to investigate both the spatial and temporal properties of Loki Patera on Io, acquired in two infrared bands between December 2022 and April […]

SwRI’s Europa Clipper Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) instrument will collect ultraviolet light to study the composition of the atmospheric gases and surface materials of Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons with a suspected subsurface ocean. Europa-UVS is the sixth in a series of SwRI-built ultraviolet spectrographs including two others surveying the Jupiter system. -- SwRI

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

SwRI-Developed Instruments Will Study Potential Habitability Of Europa

by Keith CowingOctober 15, 2024October 15, 2024

Two Southwest Research Institute instruments were launched aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft on Oct. 14 from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft is designed to conduct a detailed reconnaissance […]

JUICE-Europa Clipper Tage Team exploration of Jovian Space -- ESA

Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Astrobiology.com on Deutsche Welle: Europa Clipper and ESA Juice

by Keith CowingOctober 14, 2024October 15, 2024

Editor’s note: I was just on Deutsche Welle talking about the Europa Clipper mission – as well as ESA’s Juice mission – and how they will work in tandem exploring […]

The UVS instrument recorded spatial information produced by hydrogen atoms radiating from the Earth. In the background a number of individual stars are identified along with the Pleiades star cluster. Juice-UVS plans to similarly observe hydrogen atoms radiating from Ganymede and Jupiter’s other icy moons. Credit Southwest Research Institute

Callisto, Europa, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Missions & Hardware, Press Release

Astrobiology Fleet Update: ESA Juice Tests SwRI Ultraviolet Spectrograph

by Keith CowingOctober 9, 2024October 9, 2024

As European Space Agency (ESA)’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft hurtled past the Moon and Earth in mid-August to provide its first gravity assist maneuver to the Jovian system, […]

Technicians prepare to encapsulate NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft inside SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy payload fairing in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. NASA ID: KSC-20241002-PH-SPX01_0005 Date Created:2024-10-02 larger image

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Europa Clipper Astrobiology Spacecraft Is Truly Immense

by Keith CowingOctober 9, 2024October 9, 2024

In this image a single human is seen standing next to an immense space droid, Europa Clipper. This is the largest planetary exploration spacecraft that NASA has ever created. And […]

An illustration showing the trajectory of ESA’s Juice spacecraft during its lunar-Earth gravity assist, featuring a high-resolution ENA image of the million-degree hot plasma halo encircling Earth captured by NASA’s JENI instrument. The white rings denote equatorial distance of 4 and 6 Earth radii. The inset showcases measurements taken by the NASA’s JENI and JoEE instruments during their passage through the radiation belts, revealing a highly structured energetic ion and electron environment. Credit: ESA/NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Josh Diaz

Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Jupiter, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics

NASA Instruments On ESA Juice Astrobiology Probe Image Earth’s Radiation Belt

by Keith CowingOctober 2, 2024October 2, 2024

From Aug. 19-20, ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission made history with a daring lunar-Earth flyby and double gravity assist maneuver, a spaceflight first. As the […]

Comparing CO2 exosphere to surface properties on Ganymede’s leading hemisphere. A) Vertical CO2 gas column density (unit of 1018 m−2 , this work, see also Fig. O.2); B) Depth of CO2-solid absorption band (Paper I); C) Central wavelength of CO2-solid absorption band (Paper I); D) Reflectance at 3.65 µm (Paper I); E) Central wavelength of H2O Fresnel peak (Paper I); F) Relative amplitude of the maximum reflectance between 3.5 and 4 µm (H2O interband amplitude, Paper I). The north pole of the leading hemisphere possesses the most red-shifted absorption band center of solid CO2, consistent with CO2 trapped in amorphous H2O ice (Paper I). It also has the higher reflectance at 3.65 µm and H2O interband amplitude, indicative of a higher density of facets in H2O ice for the photons (i.e., smaller grains and/or more internal defects and/or higher micro-roughness/porosity), and the most blue-shifted central wavelength of the H2O Fresnel peak due to a higher proportion of amorphous water ice (Mastrapa et al. 2009). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Ganymede, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Status Report

A Patchy CO2 Exosphere On Ganymede Revealed By The James Webb Space Telescope

by Keith CowingSeptember 23, 2024September 23, 2024

Jupiter’s icy moon Ganymede has a tenuous exosphere produced by sputtering and possibly sublimation of water ice. To date, only atomic hydrogen and oxygen have been directly detected in this […]

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

8 Things To Know About NASA’s Astrobiology Mission To Ocean World Europa

by Keith CowingSeptember 17, 2024September 17, 2024

The first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth, Europa Clipper aims to find out if the ice-encased moon Europa could be habitable.

Artist’s rendition of variety of exoplanets featured in the new NASA TESS-Keck Survey Mass Catalog, the largest, single, homogenous analysis of TESS planets released by any survey thus far. Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko

Alpha Centauri, Astrogeology, Beta Pictoris, Ceres, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Icy Worlds, Jupiter, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Pluto, Proxima Centauri, Saturn, Status Report, tau Ceti, TRAPPIST-1, Uranus, Venus, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Classifications For Exoplanet and Exoplanetary Systems

by Keith CowingSeptember 17, 2024September 17, 2024

When a star is described as a spectral class G2V, we know its approximate mass, temperature, age, and size. At more than 5,700 exoplanets discovered, it is a natural developmental […]