University of Bern involved in Nasa mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa
Published: Friday, Oct 18th 2024, 14:20
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Four researchers from the University of Bern are taking part in NASA's mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. The aim of the mission is to investigate the icy moon for evidence of extraterrestrial life.
The researchers are part of the scientific team for the mission cameras, the Europa Imaging System (EIS) and the MASPEX mass spectrometer, as announced by the University of Bern on Friday. The Europa Clipper space probe, which is due to reach Jupiter's moon Europa in April 2030, has nine scientific instruments that work synchronously and collect data.
To this end, the probe will fly over the lunar surface almost 50 times at an altitude of 25 kilometers. During each flyby, Europa Clipper will hover over a different location to scan almost the entire moon. The EIS camera system is also used here. The researchers hope to be able to use the EIS camera to determine whether there is liquid water near the surface of Europa. MASPEX will be used to investigate the chemistry of the moon's suspected underground ocean.
The Europa Clipper is the largest space probe that NASA has ever built for a planetary mission. It started its 2.9 billion kilometer journey from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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