Portion of Europa Clipper's Tour at Jupiter (Animation)

This animation shows how NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and perform 49 flybys of Europa during its prime mission. The center orange dot represents Jupiter, with the simplified circular orbits of four of the planet's moons shown: Io (gray), Europa (blue), Ganymede (red), and Callisto (yellow). The Europa Clipper spacecraft is represented by the magenta dot looping in and out. At top right is a timestamp indicating when the flybys shown would occur; those depicted take place from April to July 2032. Europa Clipper's three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon's icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology. The mission's detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet. Animation available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26463

Date

2024-10-11

Photographer / author

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Collection

JPL

Archive

NASA Image and Video Library

Type

illustration (NASA artwork)

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