A NASA spacecraft has launched from Florida on a mission to establish whether Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could support life.
The craft, called Europa Clipper, was on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket which blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral under sunny skies.
Its launch had been delayed by the deadly Hurricane Milton that struck the US state last week.
The mission’s main scientific goal is to establish whether there are places below the surface of the moon that can harbour life.
Scientists are interested in the salty liquid water ocean, 40-100 miles deep, that previous observations have shown is under Europa’s thick 10-15 mile icy shell.
The robotic solar-powered spacecraft, that is carrying nine scientific instruments, will travel 1.8 billion miles in a trip lasting about five and a half years and is due to enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030.
It will carry out 49 close flybys of Europa over three years, gathering detailed measurements to investigate the moon.
The probe which is about as large as a basketball court, will fly as low as 16 miles above the surface, soaring over a different location during each flyby to scan nearly the entire moon.
Artist’s illustration of the Europa Clipper spacecraft over the Europa moon, with Jupiter in the background. Pic: NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP
Its solar panels will gather sunlight for powering scientific instruments, electronics and its other subsystems.
Europa Clipper, which is around 30m long and 17m wide with its antennas and solar panels – and weighs six tonnes, is the largest spacecraft the US space agency has ever built for a planetary mission.
Europa Clipper is as big as a basketball court. Pic: Artist’s illustration/NASA
The moon has been viewed as a potential habitat for life beyond Earth in our solar system.
NASA said: “The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology.
“The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet,” the agency added.
Europa, with a diameter of nearly 2,000 miles, is the fourth-largest of Jupiter’s 95 officially-recognised moons.
Even though it is just a quarter of Earth’s diameter, its vast global ocean of salty liquid water may contain twice the water that is in Earth’s oceans.
The mission’s deputy project scientist Bonnie Buratti, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: “There is very strong evidence that the ingredients for life exist on Europa. But we have to go there to find out.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The planetary scientist added: “Just to emphasise: we’re not a life-detection mission. We’re just looking for the conditions for life.”
