A NASA probe, the length of a basketball court, is headed to the tantalizing world Europa.
The Europa Clipper craft successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at 12:06 p.m. ET on Oct. 14, with no anomalies reported at time of publishing. The mission is long-anticipated: Planetary scientists are confident this moon of Jupiter harbors a deep ocean. A looming question is whether it hosts the ingredients and conditions to support life. With around 50 close flybys of the moon, the sizable craft — the largest probe NASA has ever built for a planetary science mission — intends to find Europa’s answer.
“It’s perhaps one of the best places beyond Earth to look for life in our solar system,” Cynthia Phillips, a NASA planetary geologist and project staff scientist for the space agency’s Europa Clipper mission, told Mashable.
NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.
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