Space
Billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy; Hope to find extraterrestrial life!
How many planets does the Milky Way galaxy have? Do we know the number of stars? Has life ever been discovered on one of the planets?
Billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy; Hope to find extraterrestrial life!
If you are one of those people who are interested in the night sky, you must have watched the arc of the Milky Way galaxy in a clear dark sky away from light pollution. Watching this astonishing sight is one of the most special experiences of every human being, which is accompanied by many questions. For example, maybe you want to know how many planets the Milky Way has. Or how many stars are inside this galaxy? Has life been found elsewhere in this galaxy? In this article, we are going to answer these questions.
Planets beyond the solar system
The existence of other planets in the Milky Way galaxy, especially planets that are similar to the planets of the solar system, has always been attractive to science enthusiasts. The quest to find these planets and understand their properties dates back to the distant past—especially when people were more excited about the subject when light pollution wasn’t around.
The question of whether there is life on other planets has been among other issues that mankind has been trying to answer for a long time. However, historical studies have shown that Earth was originally thought to be the only rocky planet in the universe, so no other living organisms would be found in the universe. This claim goes back to the belief of the Greeks at the time of the great scientist ” Aristotle “. At that time, it was believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and that everything in the universe revolves around the earth.
With this idea, the Greeks following Aristotle believed that there is no other rocky planet in the universe; Because soil, as the heaviest element in the universe, always tends to accumulate in the center of the universe (Earth). Therefore, no soil and stone can exist anywhere else in the world.
It took centuries for medieval thinkers to oppose Aristotle. The great scientist ” Copernicus ” discovered that the earth is not the center of the universe and everything does not revolve around it, but the sun is what the earth and other planets revolve around.
Thus, the debate about the existence and number of planets in the Milky Way continued until the studies of two great scientists, ” Galileo ” and ” Newton “, showed that the solar system with all its planets is only one of the countless planetary systems in the universe. But is it possible to provide an estimate of the number of planets in the Milky Way galaxy? The answer to this question required decades of technological progress for astronomers to make advanced observations of the cosmos and find planets outside the solar system that orbit a star like the Sun. These planets are called ” extrasolar planets “.
Discovery of the first exoplanet in the Milky Way galaxy
The first evidence of exoplanets was found in 1984. The ” Las Campanas ” observatory in Chile was able to record the gas and dust around the star ” Beta Pictoris “, which is a historical image in its own right. Previously, the scientist ” Emanuel Swedenborg ” proposed the theory that planets are formed from the accumulation of gas and dust particles, so planets can be found anywhere in the universe. At the time of the discovery of the first exoplanet, Swedenborg’s theory was highly accepted in the scientific community, and scientists suspected that the gas and dust observed was actually a protoplanet being formed.
In 1992, Alexander Welchchan and Dale Friel discovered the first extrasolar planet—not just the surrounding gas and dust—called PSR B1620-26 b. However, it was still unclear what star the planet was orbiting.
In subsequent studies, finally in 1995, ” Didier Clouse ” and ” Michel Maior ” managed to discover a planet orbiting a Sun-like star, thus the first extrasolar planet was discovered in history. This planet is called ” 51 Pegasi b ” and it revolves around the star ” 51 Pegasi “. This planetary system is about 50 light years away from Earth.
This discovery attracted the attention of scientists towards exoplanets. Now that the existence of other planets outside the solar system was proven, astronomers were curious to discover the secrets of the other planets of the Milky Way.
Trying to find more planets
Despite the discoveries made, the Earth’s atmosphere was an obstacle for further studies; Because it can simply make it impossible to discover exoplanets or study their atmosphere. So to find more exoplanets, ground-based telescopes were not very efficient. At first, scientists went to the only available option, the Hubble Space Telescope. They planned to use this telescope to study the light of the star that the exoplanet revolves around. Periodic changes in the brightness of this star indicate the rotation of the planets around it, and in this way, the rotation period of the planets can also be determined.
As the market for finding and studying these planets heated up, other telescopes were launched.
In 2003, Canada launched the MOST space telescope. The telescope was the size of a suitcase and was specifically designed to detect changes in the brightness of stars. MOST studied exoplanets for more than 15 years.
In the same year, NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope. The spitzer was a telescope equipped with an infrared observation instrument. Although this telescope was not specifically designed to study the planets of the Milky Way, its instruments provided a good opportunity to study the atmospheres of these objects. For example, astronomers made the first map of the atmospheric temperature of an exoplanet with the help of this telescope.
Spitzer Space Telescope
Spitzer Space TelescopeIn continuation of these studies, the European Space Agency deployed the ” CoRoT ” telescope in the Earth’s orbit in 2006. The purpose of this telescope was to identify the changes in the light of the stars when the planets pass in front of them. CoRoT was retired in 2014. This telescope discovered 34 exoplanets and more than 600 possible planets.
The most important event in identifying and studying other planets of the Milky Way was the launch of the Kepler space telescope in 2009. Kepler’s plan was to observe the light changes of more than 150,000 stars by observing a wide area of the sky in order to discover possible exoplanets.
Kepler’s advanced technology allowed astronomers to discover smaller planets that were previously undetectable. Kepler -10b was the first planet discovered by Kepler. This planet was actually the smallest planet discovered until that time. This rocky planet is only 1.4 times that of Earth.
Kepler continued to operate for 4 years until the first phase of its mission ended due to a technical failure. During this time, this space telescope was able to find more than a thousand exoplanets. In 2014, NASA engineers were able to readjust the Kepler telescope to begin the second phase of its mission.
During the peak of the second phase of its mission, Kepler discovered more than 1,200 more planets in the Milky Way. Astronomers estimate that about 40% of these planets are rocky and similar to Earth. The discovery of the closest exoplanet to Earth in the orbit of the star Proxima Centauri, the fascinating TRAPPIST-1 system with seven Earth-like planets, and the Kepler 90 system with eight planets are some of Kepler’s notable discoveries.
Kepler ended its mission in the fall of 2018. A few months before this date, NASA had sent the space telescope ” TESS ” into Earth’s orbit for a mission to detect exoplanets. The program of this telescope was two years, but it continues to operate. The James Webb Space Telescope, which is currently operating, is equipped with the most advanced tools for discovering and studying exoplanets.
Kepler space telescope
Kepler space telescopeThe planets of the Milky Way galaxy
Having said that, the number of exoplanets discovered by space and ground telescopes will exceed 5500 by 2024 . The Kepler space telescope has found a large part of these planets. Of course, it should be said that this is only the number of planets that astronomers have confirmed to be planets; There are thousands of other candidates among the findings of these telescopes that have not yet been definitively confirmed as planets. Accordingly, astronomers continue to discover exoplanets in older data.
With all that history we’ve covered, NASA says the age of Milky Way planet exploration has just begun. The number of planets discovered in the Milky Way is expected to increase at an unprecedented rate as data from the James Webb Space Telescope increases and artificial intelligence algorithms are used to detect planetary footprints in the vast amount of data.
However, scientists believe that the planets that have been discovered so far are only a small fraction of the planets that exist in the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers state that in order to correctly estimate the number of planets, one must first estimate the number of stars. Then by estimating how many planets each star has around it on average, we can find the exact number of planets in the Milky Way. In this count, we should not forget the planets that do not revolve around a star or revolve around objects such as black holes.
Estimating the number of planets in the Milky Way is not an easy task. Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way has between 100 billion and 400 billion stars. This estimate was obtained using observational data from various telescopes such as the GAIA telescope, which studied about 1.7 billion stars.
Kepler’s 90 system with eight planets
Kepler’s 90 system with eight planetsConsidering these points, it is difficult to estimate the number of planets. Some astronomers believe that on average one or two planets orbit each star in the Milky Way galaxy. In this case, it can be estimated that the number of planets in the Milky Way galaxy is probably equal to the number of its stars or a little more. So, our galaxy has about 100 billion stars in the lowest state and probably about 800 billion stars in the highest state.
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Of course, we should not forget that this estimate is based on our limited observations. Instrumental limitations in observations still make it difficult for us to detect stars with multiple planets—except in the rare cases where stars with more than two have been discovered. Some also believe that these stars probably have more than two planets and this is the inability of our observational equipment to discover them. In other words, our observational equipment is not yet advanced enough to detect all the planets in a star. Many of the planets we have seen are very large or orbit very close to the star, making them easy to spot.
They believe that the solar system is a common system in the Milky Way and we must assume that each star has an average of 8 planets in its orbit. With this assumption, the possible number of planets in the Milky Way reaches 3.2 trillion in the maximum state. It should also be kept in mind that our information about the planets that are not in the orbit of the stars is very little and we cannot estimate them. With this calculation, the number of planets in the Milky Way galaxy can be estimated as several trillion!
Life on the planets of the Milky Way
The discovery of life on other planets requires the discovery of certain elements such as water and oxygen and some gases, which are known as the necessities of life. For this, astronomers use the spectroscopic method. However, the existence of these compounds is not the final confirmation of the presence of life on a planet, and more extensive studies should be done to be able to claim that life exists on a planet. Be careful that life does not necessarily mean what is observed on Earth, but other types of life can be witnessed on other planets.
However, so far, none of the millions of studies conducted with the aim of finding life on other planets have been successful, and the existence of life on a planet other than Earth remains an unsolved mystery.
Conclusion
In this article, we reviewed our knowledge about the planets of the Milky Way. We saw that these planets have had a prominent presence in the minds of humans since ancient times. We learned about the history of the discovery of the first exoplanets and saw what telescopes were sent to space to identify them. We read how many stars and planets the Milky Way has and how these numbers were estimated. Finally, we mentioned life on the planets of the Milky Way galaxy.
Frequently asked questions
Why is it still difficult to land on the moon?
This year, the private company Spacel and the Indian Space Organization both met tragic ends when they tried to land their spacecraft on the surface of the moon. Despite the astonishing leaps made in recent decades in computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies, it seems that landing on the moon should be easier now; But recent setbacks show that we still have a long way to go with safe and trouble-free landings on the surface of Earth’s only moon.
50 years after sending the first man to the surface of the moon, the question arises as to why safely landing a spacecraft on Earth’s nearest cosmic neighbor is still a difficult task for space agencies and private space companies. Stay with Zoomit to check the answer to this question.
Why is the lunar landing associated with 15 minutes of fear?
Despite the complexities of any space mission, sending an object from Earth into orbit around the moon today is easy. Christopher Riley, the director of the documentary film In the Shadow of the Moon produced in 2007 and the author of the book Where We Stood (2019), both of which are about the history of the Apollo 11 mission, explained the reasons for the difficulty of landing on the moon in an interview with Digital Trends. is According to him: “Today, the paths between the Earth and the Moon are well known, and it is easy to predict them and fly inside them.”
Chandrayaan 2 mission launch
However, the real challenge is getting the spacecraft out of orbit and landing it on the lunar surface; Because there is a delay in the communication between the Earth and the Moon, and the people in the control room who are present on the Earth cannot manually control the spacecraft in order to land it safely on the Moon. As a result, the spacecraft must descend automatically, and to do so, it will fire its descent engines to slow its speed from thousands of kilometers per hour to about one meter per second, in order to make a safe landing on the lunar surface.
For this reason, the director of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), who was trying to land the Vikram lander last month, described the final descent of the spacecraft as “frightening 15 minutes”; Because as soon as the spacecraft enters the landing stage, the control of its status is out of the hands of the mission control members. They can only watch the spacecraft land and hope that everything goes according to plan, that hundreds of commands are executed correctly, and that the automatic landing systems gently bring the spacecraft closer to the surface of the moon.
The Great Unknown: The Landing Surface
One of the biggest challenges in the final descent phase is identifying the type of landing site. Despite the availability of instruments such as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) that can capture amazing views of the lunar surface, it is still difficult to know what kind of surface the spacecraft will encounter when it lands on the moon.
Left: Breshit crash site. Right: The ratio of the before and after images highlights the occurrence of minor changes in surface brightness.
Leonard David, author of Moon Fever: The New Space Race (2019) and veteran space reporter, says:
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is a very valuable asset that has performed really well over the years; But when you get a few meters above the surface of the moon, complications appear that cannot be seen even with the very powerful LRO camera.
Even today, despite the imaging data available, “some landing sites still have unknown remains,” Riley says. He notes that the Apollo 11 mission included an advantage that today’s unmanned landers lack, which is the presence of an astronaut’s observer’s eyes that can closely observe the surface of the spacecraft’s landing site. As you probably know, in the mission that led to the landing of the first man on the surface of the moon, the Eagle computer was guiding the spacecraft to a place full of boulders; But to avoid hitting the rocky surface of the moon, Armstrong took control of the spacecraft himself and landed it on a flat surface.
The uneven surface of the landing site had caused many problems in previous lunar missions such as Apollo 15. In this mission, the astronauts were told that as soon as the spacecraft touched the surface of the moon, they should turn off the engines to prevent dust from being sucked in and the risk of a return explosion. But the Apollo 15 spacecraft landed in a crater, and because of this, one of its legs came into contact with the surface earlier than the others. When the crew shut down the engines, the spacecraft, moving at a speed of 1.2 meters per second, experienced a hard landing. The lander landed at an oblique angle, and although it eventually landed safely, it nearly overturned, causing a fatal disaster.
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The difficult landing of Apollo 15 introduced another complicating factor in lunar landings: lunar dust. The Earth’s moon is covered with dust that is thrown into the air by any movement and sticks to everything it comes in contact with. As the spacecraft approaches the surface of the moon, huge plumes of dust are kicked up that limit the field of view and endanger the spacecraft’s electronics and other systems. We still do not have a solution to deal with the dust problem.
An achievement that has been achieved before
Another reason why the moon landing remains a challenge is that gaining public support for lunar projects seems difficult. Referring to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the two astronauts who walked on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, David says, “We convinced ourselves that we had sent Neil and Buzz [to the surface of the moon]; “As a result, when it comes to lunar missions, people may say we’ve been there before and we’ve had this success.”
But in reality, our understanding of the moon is still very little, especially in relation to long-term missions. Now, with a 50-year gap between the Apollo missions and NASA’s upcoming Artemis project, the knowledge gained has been lost as engineers and specialists retire. David says:
We need to recover our ability to travel into deep space. We haven’t gone beyond near-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 and since 1972. NASA is no longer the same organization that put men on the moon, and there is a whole new generation of mission operators.
The importance of redundancy
As the first private spacecraft entered into orbit around the moon, the Space project was of considerable importance; But its failure to land smoothly on the surface of the moon made the achievement of landing on the surface of the moon still remain in the hands of governments. However, we can expect more private companies, such as Jeff Bezos ‘ Blue Origin, which is developing its lunar lander, to target the moon in the future. According to Elon Musk, even the giant SpaceX Starship spacecraft, which is being built with the ultimate goal of sending a human mission to Mars , can also land on the moon.
According to David, private companies’ participation in lunar landings has advantages such as increased innovation. However, companies are under pressure to save money, and this can lead to a lack of redundancy and support systems that are essential in the event of errors and malfunctions. Lunar rovers typically include two or even three layers of support systems. David is concerned that private companies will be encouraged to eliminate these redundancies in order to cut costs and save money.
Crew Dragon SpaceX passenger capsule
“We saw Elon Musk’s Dragon capsule catch fire after a failed test on the stand,” says David, referring to the explosion of the SpaceX spacecraft in April, which had no crew on board. “This accident was kind of a wake-up call about how unpredictable the performance of spacecraft can be.” David compared the Crew Dragon incident to the Apollo 1 disaster, which killed three NASA astronauts during a test launch in 1967.
Another problem related to the lack of redundancy systems is the lack of information needed when an error occurs. As for the recent landings, it seems that the SpaceX crash was caused by human error; however, it is not clear what caused the failure of Chandrayaan 2 in the calm landing, and it is possible that without the necessary systems to record and send information to the lander, we will never find out the main reason for the failure of this mission. Without the required data, it becomes much more difficult to prevent problems from reoccurring in the future.
The future of lunar landings
Currently, many projects are underway to facilitate future moon landings. Ultimately, we need to be able to build the necessary infrastructure for a long-term stay on the moon.
Conceptual design of Moonrise technology on the moon. On the left side is the Alina lunar module, and on the right side, the lunar rover equipped with Moonrise technology melts the lunar soil with the help of a laser.
If we can make long-term stays on the moon possible, or even build a permanent base there, landing spacecraft on the lunar surface will be much easier. By constructing the landing sites, a flat, safe, and free surface of unknown debris can be created for the landing of surface occupants. For example, researchers are currently conducting research at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to investigate the feasibility of using microwaves to melt the lunar soil (regolith) and turn it into a hard foundation so that it can be used as a landing and launch site. The European Space Agency is also investigating how to use 3D printing to create landing sites and other infrastructure on the moon.
Read more: Europa Clipper, NASA’s flagship probe was launched
Other ideas include the use of lidar remote sensing systems, which are similar to radar systems; But instead of radio waves, it uses lasers to land the spacecraft. Lidar technology provides more accurate readings and uses a network of GPS satellites to help guide the spacecraft during landing.
The problem of public support
As important as technology is, public interest and support are essential to the success of the lunar landing program. “Apollo had enormous resources that are perhaps only comparable today to China’s space program,” says Riley. “Remember that Apollo carried the best computer imaginable, the human brain.” It goes without saying that there is an element of luck involved in every landing.
US Vice President Mike Pence speaking at the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission
Finally, there is the question of what kind of failure is acceptable for people. David says:
I think we have to be serious about the fact that we’re probably going to lose people. There is a serious possibility that the manned lunar lander will crash and kill the astronauts inside. The American people continued to support NASA despite the failures and bad luck of the Apollo program, But at that time there was a lot of pressure to compete with the Soviet Union. Without the bipolar atmosphere of the Cold War and the space race, would people still support missions with human lives in between?
Europa Clipper, NASA’s flagship probe was launched
After years of waiting, NASA’s Europa Clipper probe was finally launched on Monday at 7:36 p.m. Iran time from the Kennedy Space Center on top of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket and began a major astrobiology mission to Europa, the potentially habitable moon of Jupiter.
As SpaceX’s massive rocket powered by 27 powerful Merlin engines lifted off from pad 39A, NASA live broadcast reporter Dron Neal said, “The launch of Falcon Heavy with Europa Clipper will reveal the secrets of the vast ocean beneath the icy crust of Europa, Jupiter’s moon. It has been hidden, it will reveal.”
The engines of the two side boosters of the Falcon Heavy were shut down and separated from the central booster approximately three minutes after the flight. The central booster continued to fly for another minute, and then in the fourth minute of the launch, the separation of the upper stage from the first stage was confirmed. Finally, 58 minutes later, Europa Clipper was injected into interplanetary orbit as scheduled. A few minutes later, the mission team made contact with the probe, and people in the control room cheered and applauded.
Falcon Heavy’s unique launch
The launch of NASA’s new probe was delayed due to some mishaps. NASA and SpaceX initially planned to launch the Europa Clipper mission on Thursday, October 10; But with powerful Hurricane Milton hitting Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday evening, a delay in the launch became inevitable. NASA shut down Kennedy Space Center to deal with the storm, and Europa Clipper was placed inside SpaceX’s hangar near Launch Pad 39A.
The recent launch was Falcon Heavy’s 11th flight overall and its second interplanetary mission. Also, this was the first flight of the Falcon Heavy, when all three boosters of the first stage of the rocket were deployed.
Typically, the Falcon Heavy and Falcon 9 first-stage boosters store enough fuel to perform landing maneuvers for recovery and reuse in the future; But Europa Clipper needed all the power that Falcon Heavy could provide in order to make it on its way to the Jupiter system.
A long way to the launch pad
In late 2015, the US Congress directed NASA to launch Europa Clipper using the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA’s massive rocket. SLS was still under construction at the time and was several years away from reaching the launch pad. The delay in completing the construction of this powerful rocket and NASA’s need to assign at least the first three versions of SLS to the Artemis lunar mission caused the Europa Clipper launch date to be in an aura of uncertainty.
In the 2021 House budget draft for NASA, the agency was directed to launch Europa Clipper by 2025 and, if possible, with SLS. However, due to the unavailability of the Space Launch System, NASA had to go to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. This decision was not without cost. As the most powerful rocket ever used in an operational mission, SLS can send Europa Clipper directly to the Jupiter system in less than three years.
Europa Clipper will use the gravitational assistance of Mars and Earth on its way to the Jupiter system
Now, even in Falcon Heavy’s fully disposable mode, the Clipper’s trip to Europe takes almost twice as long. The probe should make a flyby of Mars in February 2025 and a flyby of Earth in December 2026 to gain enough speed to reach its destination in April 2030.
Missile problems were not the only obstacles facing Europa Clipper on its way to the launch pad. For example, the rising costs of this five billion dollar probe forced NASA to cancel the construction of one of the probe’s science instruments. This instrument, named “Identification of Europa’s internal features using a magnetometer” (ICEMAG), was designed to measure Europa’s magnetic field.
Then in May 2024, NASA found that transistors similar to those used in Europa Clipper, which are responsible for regulating the probe’s electricity, were “failing at lower-than-expected radiation doses.” Following this discovery, NASA conducted more tests on the transistors and finally concluded in late August that these components could support the initial mission in the radiation-rich environment around Jupiter.
Ambitious mission to a fascinating moon
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech
Europa Clipper is one of NASA’s most exciting and ambitious flagship missions, and it has impressive features. For example, the mission probe is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission. Europa Clipper weighed almost 6,000 kg at the time of launch and will be more than 30 meters long (bigger than a basketball court) by opening its huge solar panels in space.
Clipper’s Europa destination is also a prominent location: Europa, one of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons. The moon is covered with an icy outer shell, which scientists believe hides a vast ocean of salty liquid water. For this reason, Europa is considered one of the best places in the solar system to support alien life.
In early 2012, studies began to look for potential plumes of water rising from Europa’s surface. Some researchers theorize that those water columns and vents from which the columns protrude may contain evidence of life living beneath the moon’s icy crust. However, NASA scientists have made it clear that Europa Clipper is not looking for extraterrestrial life in Europa; Rather, this probe will only investigate the potential of the submoon water environment to support life.
“If there’s life on Europa, it’s going to be under the ocean,” Bonnie Buratti, senior Europa Clipper scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in September. As a result, we cannot see it.” “We will be looking for organic chemicals that are prerequisites for life on the surface of the moon,” Borrati added. There are things we can observe; such as DNA or RNA; But we don’t expect to see them. As a result, [the probe] is only looking for habitable environments and evidence for the ingredients of life, rather than life itself.”
NASA scientists have made it clear that Europa Clipper is not looking for extraterrestrial life in Europa
Europa Clipper will collect data using a suite of nine scientific instruments, including visible and thermal cameras, several spectrometers, and special equipment to identify Europa’s magnetic environment. As stated on NASA’s Europa Clipper page, the probe will help scientists achieve three main goals:
- Determining the thickness of Europa’s ice sheet and understanding how Europa’s ocean interacts with the lunar surface.
- Investigating the composition of Europa’s ocean to determine whether it has the materials necessary to form and sustain life.
- Studying the formation of Europe’s surface features and discovering signs of recent geological activities; such as the sliding of crustal plates or the discharge of water columns in space.
Europa Clipper also transports Earth’s culture to the Solar System. A piece called “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europe” by Edda Lemon, a famous American poet, is engraved in the artist’s own handwriting on a metal plate. In addition, the probe carries a coin-sized chip that contains the names of 2.6 million inhabitants of planet Earth.
6-year journey
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
If all goes according to plan, Europa Clipper will enter Jupiter’s orbit in April 2030. When the probe gets there, it will use up 50-60% of its 2,722 kg of fuel by performing an injection maneuver for 6-8 hours.
The injection maneuver puts Europa Clipper in an elliptical orbit around the gas giant. A series of long maneuvers will then be performed to align the trajectory so that the probe can fly by Europa more than 45 times and study it closely. In fact, Europa Clipper will remain around Jupiter throughout its mission; Because according to the launch environment of Europa, it will be very dangerous for the spacecraft to go around the moon.
If all goes according to plan, Europa Clipper will enter Jupiter’s orbit in April 2030
The first flight over Europe will not take place before the spring of 2031. NASA will use the first pass to make further corrections to Europa Clipper’s trajectory in preparation for the probe’s first science mission. With the start of scientific flybys in May 2031, Europa Clipper will aim its array of sensors towards the far hemisphere from Jupiter and will approach the surface of the moon up to 25 km. The second science campaign will begin two years later, in May 2033, in the Jupiter-facing hemisphere of Europa.
The end of the Europa Clipper mission is set for September 2034. At that time, NASA will crash the spacecraft into Ganymede, another Galilean moon of Jupiter. This disposal strategy was chosen because Ganymede is considered a relatively poor candidate to host life, and the mission team wanted to make sure they did not contaminate potentially life-hosting Europa with terrestrial microbes.
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