“Europa Clipper – Exploring an Ocean World”
By: Dr. Walter Kiefer
The Europa Clipper is a space probe launched on October 14th, 2024, with Jupiter’s moon Europa as its destination. After receiving gravity assists from Mars and Earth, Europa Clipper will arrive at Jupiter in April 2030. The space probe will orbit the giant planet and perform multiple flybys of its most Europa, its fascinating moon.
Europa, one of the four “Galilean” moons of Jupiter is one of our Solar Systems most unique members. It’s surface is completely covered in ice. It is thought to have an iron core enclosed in silicate rocks, all covered by what is likely to be a subsurface ocean under the ice. Europa is thought to be an Ocean World, and since life on Earth might well have fostered the development of life as we know it, there has been some thought that Europa’s ocean might have played as similar role.
The Europa Clipper space probe will perform a detailed study of the geology and internal structure of Europa, including characterization of the depth and composition of a likely subsurface ocean. The over-arching objective of this space mission is assessing whether the ocean might be able to support life.
In this talk, Dr. Kiefer will provide an overview of the Europa Clipper mission and its science objectives.
Speaker: Walter Kiefer is the Director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston and is a member of the Gravity and Radio Science team for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission.
To see the video, click Europa Clipper Mission/a>.
