The Juice probe will take about eight years just to reach Jupiter. Once there, it will use the gravitational field of Jupiter to slingshot itself onto rendezvous and flybys of other moons. And then about three years into the mission, they will try to put Juice in orbit around Ganymede. They'll be looking for all the magnetic instrument readings that will be able to tell them what the ocean under the icy surface is actually like. I think it's absolutely the next step in our search for life beyond the Earth.
The European Space Agency’s long-awaited Juice Mission is about to blast off for Jupiter’s moons. Its goal: to find out whether the oceans below their icy surfaces could be capable of supporting life. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Stuart Clark about why moons are the new Mars for scientists seeking life, how magnetic fields can help us understand these mysterious lunar oceans, and what Juice might mean for our understanding of life beyond the solar system. Help support our independent journalism at
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