Europa Clipper: NASA spacecraft blasts off to find out if Jupiter moon can support life
A NASA spacecraft has launched from Florida on a mission to find out if Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could support life.
The craft, called Europa Clipper, was on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket which blasted off from Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral under sunny skies.
Its launch had been delayed for several days by the deadly Hurricane Milton that struck the US state last week.
The mission’s main scientific goal is to establish whether there are places below the surface of the moon that can harbour life.
Pic: Reuters
Scientists are interested in the salty liquid water ocean, 40-100 miles deep, that previous observations have shown is under Europa’s thick 10-15 mile icy shell. And where there is water, there could be life.
The robotic solar-powered spacecraft, which is carrying nine scientific instruments, will travel 1.8 billion miles in a trip lasting about five and a half years and is due to enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030.
Dozens of flybys planned
It will carry out 49 close flybys of Europa over three years, gathering detailed measurements to investigate the moon.
The probe, which is about as large as a basketball court, will fly as low as 16 miles above the surface, soaring over a different location during each flyby to scan nearly the entire moon.
It will not look for life but will focus on the ingredients necessary to sustain life – searching for organic compounds and other clues as it uses radar to peer beneath the ice for suitable conditions.
Artist’s illustration of the Europa Clipper spacecraft over the Europa moon, with Jupiter in the background. Pic: NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP
How big is the craft?
Europa Clipper, which is around 30m long and 17m wide with its antennas and solar panels – and weighs nearly six tonnes – is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission.
Its solar panels will gather sunlight for powering scientific instruments, electronics and its other subsystems in the £3.9bn mission.
The moon has been viewed as a potential habitat for life beyond Earth in our solar system.
Europa Clipper is as big as a basketball court. Pic: Artist’s illustration/NASA
Main objectives
NASA said: “The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology.”
“The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet,” the space agency added.
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Europa, with a diameter of nearly 2,000 miles, is the fourth-largest of Jupiter’s 95 officially-recognised moons.
Even though it is just a quarter of Earth’s diameter, its vast global ocean of salty liquid water may contain twice the water than Earth’s oceans.
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The mission’s deputy project scientist Bonnie Buratti said: “There is very strong evidence that the ingredients for life exist on Europa. But we have to go there to find out.”
The planetary scientist, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, added: “Just to emphasise: we’re not a life-detection mission. We’re just looking for the conditions for life.”
Millions of Americans are voting in an historic election that could put Donald Trump back into the White House or make Kamala Harris the first woman to become US president.
The two candidates are neck and neck in the polls after bitter campaign that saw two assassination attempts against Republican Mr Trump as well as the shock withdrawal of President Joe Biden.
In around 100 days, Ms Harris has found her feet and mounted a fierce challenge to her opponent.
With just hours left before polls close, the election has come down to the wire and could be decided by a handful of crucial battleground states.
Follow live: Harris makes surprise stop in Washington
Voting on Tuesday appears to be smooth, with only scattered reports of delays from extreme weather, long lines or technical problems.
The FBI reported that there had been “non-credible” bomb threats to several states, some of which it said came from Russian email domains.
Pic: AP
How the vote works
As well as those lining up at polling booths on Tuesday, tens of millions of Americans cast early ballots – voting by post or in person before today.
To become president, the winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes or more, with each state carrying a different number of votes.
If the polls predicting a close race are correct, the election will likely come down to a few battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The first ballots cast on Tuesday mirrored the national divide. Overnight, the six registered voters in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, split their votes between the two candidates in voting just past midnight.
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Key issues for American voters
Read more:
An easy guide to the US election
What Trump or Harris victories would mean for UK
Trump or Harris
Former President Mr Trump, 78, voted in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago club.
Wearing his trademark red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, he said at the polling station that he was feeling “very confident”.
“I hear we’re doing very well,” he said. “It looks like Republicans have shown up in force.”
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump donor, said he will watch results unfold with the former president.
In the meantime, Ms Harris, the 60-year-old Democratic vice president, did radio interviews in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
A cat seen at a polling booth in battleground state Pennsylvania. Pic: Reuters
What do the polls say?
Many polls are too tight to call and, with a large margin of error, most experts are refusing to predict the outcome.
Georgia could be among the first battleground to declare, with polls there closing at 7pm local time (midnight UK time). State election officials told Sky News they could have a result as early as 10pm (3am UK time).
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
North Carolina could also give an early indication of how the vote is going.
Even so, it could be several days before the US has a definitive result.
An exit poll by conducted today by Sky News’ sister outlet NBC News and other US outlets suggests that democracy is the top issue on the minds of voters as they cast their ballots.
Some 35% of people said it was their most important issue, closely followed by the economy on 31% and with abortion ranked third at 14%.
Voters are not just selecting a president. A number of seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate are up for grabs. In addition, 10 states will hold abortion-related ballots, half of which would overturn existing restrictions.
Americans are choosing their new president today.
Either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will be the new occupant of the White House in January.
For many people, their vote will make little difference.
The main crunch points are in seven states and one inner state district.
In the following game, you can predict who will win in each swing state.
We will tell you at the end who the new president will be – if you have made correct predictions.
Good luck!
Voters across 50 states are preparing to cast their ballots after a bitterly contested US election campaign, which will see Donald Trump or Kamala Harris become president.
In the last few hours, both candidates have been giving their final pitches. “The momentum is on our side,” Ms Harris told a crowd in Philadelphia that chanted back, “We will win”.
“Tonight, then, we finish as we started: with optimism, with energy, with joy,” she said, while enjoying the support of celebrity endorsements on the day from Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Jon Bon Jovi.
In contrast, Mr Trump ended his campaign in Michigan, repeating key messages about the economy and immigration.
A handful of states will play a crucial role in determining the outcome of the election. Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin hold the keys to the White House.
To become president, the winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes or more, with each state carrying a different number of votes.
But the focus has been on Pennsylvania which carries 19 electoral votes, the most of all the swing states.
It has been a remarkable journey for both candidates – with Mr Trump surviving two assassination attempts and Ms Harris not even originally in the running.
Katy Perry performed in Pittsburgh in support of Kamala Harris. Pic: AP
For more than a year, the 2024 presidential race seemed destined for a rematch between Joe Biden and Mr Trump – but a disastrous TV debate by Mr Biden eventually forced him to withdraw from the ticket.
The Democratic party’s decision to replace Mr Biden with his vice president transformed the race and shifted polls in Ms Harris’s favour. But only just.
Many polls are too tight to call and, with a large margin of error, most experts are refusing to predict the outcome.
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Later, attention will turn to those battleground states including Georgia, which is among the first polls to close at 7pm local time (midnight UK time).
State election officials told Sky News they could have a result as early as 10pm (3am UK time).
Even so, it could be several days before the US has a definitive result.
Voters are not just selecting a president. In addition, 10 states will hold abortion-related ballots, half of which would overturn existing restrictions.
Predict who you think will win in each swing state and we’ll tell you who the president will be if you’re right.
Tonight, Sky News will have access to the most comprehensive exit poll and vote-counting results from every state, county and demographic across America through its US-partner network NBC.
You can find out more about Sky News’ coverage here.
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