Juno

Europa is such an intriguing Jovian moon, it is the focus of its own future NASA mission. We're happy to provide data that may help the Europa Clipper team with ...

In 2021, Juno came within 645 miles (1,038 km) of Ganymede, and in 2023 and 2024 Juno will have close flybys of Io. At an hour from closest approach to Europa, the spacecraft will still be 51,820 miles (83,397 km) out. The relative velocity between spacecraft and moon will be 14.7 miles per second (23.6 kilometers per second), so we are screaming by pretty fast. We have the right equipment to do the job, but to capture a plume will require a lot of luck. Juno will look at the moon’s icy crust to learn more about its composition and temperature. These moons are the Galilean moons, and Europa is the second closest to Jupiter and the smallest of the four. [Juno](https://earthsky.org/space/nasas-juno-mission-jupiter-ganymede-in-infrared/) spacecraft will perform a close flyby of Jupiter’s icy moon [Europa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon)) at 2:36 a.m. Plus, it will record Europa’s interaction with Jupiter’s [magnetosphere](https://science.nasa.gov/heliophysics/focus-areas/magnetosphere-ionosphere), all of which will be useful in the upcoming [Europa Clipper](https://earthsky.org/space/europa-clipper-main-body-of-spacecraft-jpl/) mission, set to launch in 2024. Juno will be just a bit more distant than the Europa is one of the four largest moons of Jupiter. Europa is such an intriguing Jovian moon, it is the focus of its own future NASA mission. The spacecraft will come within 222 miles (538 km), taking some of the highest-resolution images yet of portions of Europa’s surface.

The Juno spacecraft will get the most detailed snapshots yet of Jupiter's moon Europa as it flies by tonight. And you can help process the images.

I'm keen to see what we discover with this next set of images." it wasn't in our original plan," said Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute and head of NASA's Juno mission. "But that's a long-term goal. "Life may well not be right up at the surface because it will be down where the source of energy and nutrients is," he said. "We can't look for definitive evidence of life on Europa at the moment from Earth or from orbit around Europa because the ice sheet is in the way," Professor Horner said. On Europa it will be able to measure the thickness of the frozen crust and detect changes in reflectivity that may indicate fractures or pockets of water near the surface. "If we did see [pockets of sub-surface water], that would be a very important discovery because that may be the more likely place where liquid would make contact with the surface." Then it will cross over to the Europa's day side and take a series of colour images with a resolution of around 1km per pixel using JunoCam. Europa is the second of Jupiter's moons to get the close-up treatment by the Juno spacecraft. In the late 1990s, the Galileo spacecraft captured Europa in even more detail in a series of flybys. The first grainy images from a distance of 321,000km were captured by the Pioneer 10 spacecraft as it flew by in 1973. Coming within 358 kilometres of the moon's red and white-striped surface, it will be the closest flyby of the tiny world in more than two decades.

For the first time in more than 20 years, NASA is about to buzz Europa. On Sept. 29th, the Juno spacecraft will fly only 222 miles above the frozen surface ...

For the first time in more than 20 years, NASA is about to buzz Europa. NASA is about to buzz Europa

NASA's Juno probe is all set for a close flyby of Jupiter's icy moon Europa on Thursday (Sept. 29), which could possibly reveal tremendous new insights into ...

The spacecraft also made a [flyby of the massive moon Ganymede](https://www.space.com/juno-ganymede-moon-flyby-craters-auroras) in March 2021, revealing auroras and huge unknown craters. But Jupiter's strong gravitational field is pulling Juno closer in toward the planet on every orbit. The flyby is part of extended mission objectives approved in 2021. And the flyby could lead to new insights into the unseen depths of Europa. The visit follows a 2000 flyby by the [Galileo spacecraft](https://www.space.com/18632-galileo-spacecraft.html), and scientists hope that comparing the images taken by the two probes could be very insightful. Juno is primarily designed to study the interior of Jupiter, but the spacecraft's full suite of instruments and sensors will be online to gather as much information about Europa as possible. Juno's magnetometer and radio wave experiment will probe Europa's internal structure via the moon's gravity fields. [Hubble Space Telescope](https://www.space.com/jupiter-moon-europa-plumes-crust). "We know that Europa is a dynamic geological body," Michel Blanc, a co-investigator on the Juno mission, told Space.com at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris. Another fascinating possibility would be finding evidence of water plumes erupting from the cracks on Europa's surface. Beneath its icy exterior, scientists think Europa harbors a global ocean, kept liquid by the forces exerted on it by Saturn's ice-covered moon Enceladus famously has much more frequent, prominent [plumes of water](https://www.space.com/38559-how-cassini-discovered-enceladus-plumes.html) from its south pole.

The NASA probe will photograph the satellite, which researchers believe could be capable of supporting life.

In the middle of the night, the illumination will come from the reflection of the Sun in the clouds of Jupiter. [sixth-largest moon of Saturn](https://english.elpais.com/science-tech/2022-09-17/how-saturn-got-its-rings.html), emits jets of water from cracks in the ice. The angle of the flyby also means that June will see regions that aren’t clearly visible in previous photos of the moon. The Galileo, however, followed a smaller equatorial orbit, meaning it was exposed to higher doses of radiation. The last time a spacecraft visited Europa was 22 years ago, when NASA’s Galileo spacecraft captured a series of images of the moon. Indeed, in 2003, one of the data recorders on the Galileo spacecraft was damaged, leaving it inactive for weeks until technicians were able to repair it remotely.

On Thursday morning, NASA's Juno spacecraft swooped down to within 358 km of the surface of Europa, the large, ice-encrusted Moon that orbits Jupiter.

This mission will be dedicated to the study of the moon, arriving in 2030 and performing more than 50 flybys at close range to gather data. While the ice sheet is believed to be several kilometers thick, the Hubble Space Telescope has collected data that indicates geysers may be periodically ejected through cracks in this ice. Juno will bring new tools with which to study this ice sheet. After it successfully completed its primary mission in 2021, Juno's mission operators have begun using the probe to assess moons in the Jovian system, including Europa, Ganymede, and Io. However, the Juno spacecraft will carry a more powerful suite of instruments and a far more capable camera than Galileo. So this should be our best look yet at the intriguing world.

A National Aeronautics and Space Administration spacecraft gave scientists one of the closest-ever looks at an ice-covered moon orbiting Jupiter that the ...

[Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, Europa](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth), on Thursday, coming within 222 miles of its surface around 5:36 a.m. [Sign In](https://accounts.wsj.com/login?target=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fnasas-juno-spacecraft-completes-closest-flyby-of-jupiter-moon-europa-in-decades-11664459669) [View Membership Options](https://subscribe.wsj.com/wsjsnippet)

Observations from the spacecraft's pass of the moon provided the first close-up in over two decades of this ocean world, resulting in remarkable imagery and ...

Juno’s close-up views and data from its Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument will provide new details on how the structure of Europa’s ice varies beneath its crust. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. “The JunoCam images will fill in the current geologic map, replacing existing low-resolution coverage of the area.” “This first picture is just a glimpse of the remarkable new science to come from Juno’s entire The close flyby modified Juno’s trajectory, reducing the time it takes to orbit Jupiter from 43 to 38 days. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. [https://www.nasa.gov/juno](https://www.nasa.gov/juno) The oblong pit near the terminator might be a degraded impact crater. EDT), at a distance of about 219 miles (352 kilometers). PDT (5:36 a.m. Due to the enhanced contrast between light and shadow seen along the terminator (the nightside boundary), rugged terrain features are easily seen, including tall shadow-casting blocks, while bright and dark ridges and troughs curve across the surface. 29, at 2:36 a.m.

Here's a version of one of Juno's raw images of Jupiter's moon Europa as seen by the spacecraft on Sept. 29, 2022. NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Image processing by Amanda ...

[mission extension in 2021](/science/nasa-extends-mars-insight-and-jupiter-juno-missions-for-more-years-of-science/) to study some of the gas giant's largest moons in more detail. [Europa Clipper mission](/science/space/meet-nasas-giant-spacecraft-destined-to-hunt-for-alien-life-in-our-solar-system/). [raw images from the flyby](https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing?source=junocam) to the JunoCam website. The moon has also been known to spit out [mysterious geysers](/science/geysers-europa-jupiter-moon-life-hubble-clipper-mission/) that hint at activity below. "The JunoCam images will fill in the current geologic map, replacing existing low-resolution coverage of the area." [NASA shared](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-juno-shares-first-image-from-flyby-of-jupiter-s-moon-europa) a close-up of Europa as seen by Juno from a distance of just 219 miles (352 kilometers) above the surface.

NASA's Juno spacecraft has made the closest approach to Jupiter's tantalizing, icy moon Europa in more than 20 years. On Thursday, Juno zipped within 357 ...

NASA's Juno spacecraft has made the closest approach to Jupiter's tantalizing, icy moon Europa in more than 20 years. NASA's Juno spacecraft makes closest flyby in more than 20 years of Jupiter's moon Europa Juno zipped within 357 kilometres of icy moon

Here's a version of one of Juno's raw images of Jupiter's moon Europa as seen by the spacecraft on Sept. 29, 2022. NASA/SwRI/MSSS/Image processing by Amanda ...

[mission extension in 2021](/science/nasa-extends-mars-insight-and-jupiter-juno-missions-for-more-years-of-science/) to study some of the gas giant's largest moons in more detail. [Europa Clipper mission](/science/space/meet-nasas-giant-spacecraft-destined-to-hunt-for-alien-life-in-our-solar-system/). [raw images from the flyby](https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing?source=junocam) to the JunoCam website. The moon has also been known to spit out [mysterious geysers](/science/geysers-europa-jupiter-moon-life-hubble-clipper-mission/) that hint at activity below. "The JunoCam images will fill in the current geologic map, replacing existing low-resolution coverage of the area." [NASA shared](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-s-juno-shares-first-image-from-flyby-of-jupiter-s-moon-europa) a close-up of Europa as seen by Juno from a distance of just 219 miles (352 kilometers) above the surface.

The first picture NASA's Juno spacecraft took as it flew by Jupiter's ice-encrusted moon Europa has arrived on Earth. Revealing surface features in a region ...