NASA's Clipper probe embarks on journey to Jupiter's icy moon in search of life

NASA's Europa Clipper mission launched on Monday, beginning a 1.8-billion-mile journey to Jupiter's moon Europa, where scientists hope to determine if its icy crust hides a habitable ocean.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carried the $5.2 billion probe into space from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12.06 pm EDT, according to CBC News.

Just over an hour after launch, the spacecraft was released, starting a solo five-and-a-half-year voyage to the outer solar system. If all goes as planned, the Europa Clipper will enter Jupiter's orbit in April 2030, where it will conduct 49 close flybys of the moon Europa to gather data on its ice-covered surface and potential subsurface ocean.

Europa, about the size of Earth's moon, is believed to hold a global saltwater ocean beneath its frozen crust, heated by Jupiter's gravitational pull as it orbits slightly elliptically. Previous missions and Earth-based observations suggest this hidden ocean may be capable of supporting life.

“Europa is an ice-covered moon of Jupiter, about the size of Earth's moon, but believed to have a global subsurface ocean that contains more than twice the water of all Earth's oceans combined,” Project Scientist Robert Pappalardo told CBC News.

The Europa Clipper's instruments will analyze the composition of Europa's icy crust and the ocean beneath to see if it contains the necessary chemical elements and energy sources to support microbial life. “We want to determine whether Europa has the potential to support simple life in the deep ocean, beneath its icy layer,” Pappalardo said. “We want to understand whether Europa has the key ingredients to support life in its ocean.”