Check Out Juno’s First Up-Close Images of Icy Europa

NASA ’s Juno spacecraft complete its close flyby of Jupiter ’s moon Europa on Thursday , and the first images from the manoeuvre have now arrive on Earth for your viewing joy .

The images were taken yesterday at about 5:36 a.m. ET , from 219 Roman mile above the synodic month ’s aerofoil . That clear Juno ’s close flip just a shade far from Europa than the Galileo ballistic capsule ’s flyby of the moon over 20 years ago , 218 miles from Europa ’s surface .

“ It ’s very ahead of time in the appendage , but by all denotation , Juno ’s flyby of Europa was a great success , ” said Scott Bolton , Juno main researcher from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio , Texas , in aNASA handout . “ This first picture is just a glance of the remarkable new science to come from Juno ’s entiresuite of instruments and sensorsthat acquired data as we skimmed over the synodic month ’s icy crust . ”

Europa as recently seen by Juno.

Europa as recently seen by Juno.Image:NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Thomas Appéré

Europa is somewhat little than Earth ’s synodic month and of slap-up scientific stake . Its surface is a frozen wasteland miles thick-skulled , but scientists suppose that a piquant sea lies beneath its surface . If that is on-key , then Europa ’s subsurface would be agreat place for life to conceal out . Just as the Perseverance rover on Mars is scouring a dried - up river delta for signs of dodo life , so too does NASA think Europa is deserving look into .

Juno picked out open feature — broken terrain and possible encroachment craters — in its two - 60 minutes window zipping past Europa . Candy Hansen , a carbon monoxide gas - investigator on Juno at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson , Arizona , said in a NASA release that the images will be compared to images of the moonlight taken on premature missions , like Galileo in 2000 . The team can investigate whether any features of Europa ’s surface have change in that time .

Hansen add that the late look-alike will aid supervene upon older , lower - solution images of Europa ’s surface .

A detail of the first image snapped by Juno on its recent flyby.

A detail of the first image snapped by Juno on its recent flyby.Image:NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS

The image also pave the way for NASA ’s Europa Clipper mission . That spacecraft is set to launch in 2024 and get in at Europa in 2030 . It will investigate the moon ’s surface , atm , and , most intriguingly , its interior .

study the moon ’s inside will help scientists understand the complex body part of Europa ’s ice beneath the freshness , as well as where swimming urine may lie beneath the Earth’s surface .

Ultimately , the Europa Clipper will give NASA scientists a gist of the major planet ’s habitability , in the agency ’s great search for life beyond Earth .

Four views of Europa recently seen by Juno.