NASA spacecraft reaches its closest point to Jupiter's moon, Europa
The US space agency announced that its spacecraft "Juno" was able to reach the closest point two decades ago to Jupiter's moon, known as "Europa".
The vehicle approached more than 350 kilometers from this icy moon, whose thick frozen crust contains huge amounts of water, which increases the possibility of life underwater.
"Juno" has reached the closest point in two decades to Jupiter's moon - Associated Press
The spacecraft was able to take several clear pictures of this moon. Scientists hoped to capture a picture of "frozen water columns" appearing on the surface of the moon "Europa", but it did not appear in the captured images.
In this context, Scott Bolton, of the “Southwest” Research Institute in San Antonio, explained in a statement that such footage is possible if the vehicle is present at exactly the right time and place.
In turn, John Purdy, assistant mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, revealed that the Juno spacecraft was traveling at a relative speed of less than 24 kilometers per second (23.6 kilometers per second).
And one of the pictures of “Europa” showed an area that includes hills, and what looks like a “crater impact” that the moon was exposed to.
These images help NASA plan its mission, which it will launch in 2024, to reach the “Jovian space system” of Jupiter in 2030, which includes dozens of its satellites.
The Galileo spacecraft was able to approach the moon, Europa, in 2000, when it was 351 km away.
Source : websites