Wednesday, October 16

NASA's Europa Clipper is on its way to Jupiter after its groundbreaking launch on Monday, and it will aim to learn more about the depths of Jupiter's fourth-largest moon, Europa.

Europa was first discovered by Galilei Galileo in 1610, and was a huge turning point in our understanding of space. Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons was the first true piece of evidence that showed that Earth was not the center of the universe, as the Sun was previously thought to orbit the Earth, along with all of the other planets in the solar system.

The moon is slightly smaller than our own moon, but it is around 400 million miles away from Earth. Europa has long been suspected to possibly harbor life in its icy ocean deep beneath its surface-- the planet's iron-nickel core is covered in a massive layer of salt water. In fact, scientists estimate that Europa's ocean could contain up to double the amount of water that Earth's global ocean does; while the average depth of Earth's ocean is around 2.3 miles, the average depth of Europa's ocean is a staggering 62 miles. That ocean is topped with a thick, bright shell of ice, thought to be around 10 to 15 miles thick, which makes up the crust of the faraway moon. However, that icy layer is laced with reddish-brown cracks, providing a look into the depths underneath its surface.

To discover more about this mysterious moon and whether it could actually be harboring any life, NASA have launched Europa Clipper, a spacecraft set to reach the moon of Jupiter in five-and-a-half years. Europa Clipper launched on Monday afternoon aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The spacecraft will proceed to pass by Mars in early 2025, giving it a boost in speed, and then circle around the Sun and fly by Earth in 2026. It will use Earth's gravitational pull to slingshot the spacecraft to Jupiter, arriving sometime in 2030 after a long, 1.8 billion-mile voyage. Once it begins orbiting Jupiter, it will pass Europa a total of 49 times, using nine different instruments, including an ice-penetrating radar, cameras, and a thermal sensor to scan Europa's surface and peer into its ocean.

Europa may be harboring life in its massive ocean, but it is extremely uninhabitable for humans-- temperatures range from -210˚F to as cold as -370˚C, and while the atmosphere is primarily oxygen, it is far too thin for humans to breathe. In addition, large amounts of ionizing radiation bombard Europa's surface every day, forcing any possible life to live underwater. If a human were exposed to those amounts of dangerous radiation on Earth, they would die within a day. However, the possibility of alien life on Europa is very large compared to other planets or moons in our solar system, and while that alien life may not be as sophisticated as ours, it could have the potential to develop in the future-- even life on Earth began 3.5 billion years ago with single-celled, microscopic organisms.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Oysters can change their gender-- they are usually born as males, but can switch multiple times throughout their lives. Other animals that can change genders include various species of fish, snails, and frogs.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it. (Eckhart Tölle)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Rendition (noun)- A rendition, simply put, is the act or result of rendering something. That thing may be a performance or interpretation, a depiction, or a translation. In US law, rendition refers to the surrender by a state of a fugitive to another state that is charging the fugitive with a crime.

In a Sentence: Their signature meat loaf is a fine rendition of a classic recipe.