A European spacecraft is about to embark on a 6.6 billion kilometre journey (4.1billion miles) to explore whether Jupiter’s ocean-bearing moons can support life. The six-tonne probe, named Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), will be heading towards the solar system’s biggest planet carrying 10 scientific instruments in what is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) biggest deep-space mission yet.
Scientists in the UK have led the development of one instrument known as the magnetometer, which will help shed light on how Jupiter’s icy moons formed.
Dr Caroline Harper, head of space science at the UK Space Agency, which has invested £9 m in the mission, said: “Juice will take us to a part of the solar system that we know relatively little about, to study Jupiter, our largest planet, and to investigate whether some of its icy moons are home to conditions that could support life.”
