Short20241 min1920×1080

Portion of Europa Clipper's Tour at Jupiter (PIA26463)

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Space

About

This animation shows how NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and perform 49 flybys of Europa during its prime mission. The center orange dot represents Jupiter, with the simplified circular orbits of four of the planet's moons shown: Io (gray), Europa (blue), Ganymede (red), and Callisto (yellow). The Europa Clipper spacecraft is represented by the magenta dot looping in and out. At top right is a timestamp indicating when the flybys shown would occur; those depicted take place from April to July 2032. Europa Clipper's three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon's icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission's detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

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Wikimedia Commons, in Wikimedia Commons
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Public domain, as the Wikimedia Commons states it.
Rights statement
Public domain
Credit
NASA/JPL-Caltech
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