Europa Clipper is a space probe in development by NASA. Planned for launch in October 2024, the spacecraft is being developed to study the Galilean moon Europa through a series of flybys while in orbit around Jupiter. It is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission.
The flybys of Europa by a previous mission collected the data for this mosaic.
NASA’s Europa Clipper, with all of its instruments installed, is visible in the clean room of High Bay 1 at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The photo composite of suspected water plumes on Europa
The concept to achieve global-regional coverage of Europa during successive flybys
Europa, or Jupiter II, is the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, and the sixth-closest to the planet of all the 95 known moons of Jupiter. It is also the sixth-largest moon in the Solar System. Europa was discovered independently by Simon Marius and Galileo Galilei and was named after Europa, the Phoenician mother of King Minos of Crete and lover of Zeus.
Size comparison of Europa (lower left) with the Moon (top left) and Earth (right)
Europa closeup (9 September 2022)
NIR image of Europa by the James Webb Space Telescope, confirming the presence of carbon dioxide on the moon
Photo composite of suspected water plumes on Europa
