A spacecraft planned to launch from the U.S. today will embark on a mission to search for signs of alien life, targeting Jupiter's mysterious moon, Europa.
It is believed that beneath its icy surface lies a massive ocean, twice the size of Earth's water.
NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will catch up with the recently launched European mission but will become the first to reach its destination through a maneuver known as "cosmic surfing."
However, the journey won't be complete until 2030, with the potential to fundamentally change our understanding of life in our solar system.
After years of preparation, the launch of Europa Clipper was delayed due to Hurricane Milton hitting Florida. The spacecraft was quickly brought indoors, and engineers approved a launch on October 14 at 19:06 UTC after checks on the launch pad.
Planetary microbiologist Mark Fox-Powell stated, "If we discover life at such a distant location, it would indicate the existence of a life source different from Earth. This is significant because if it occurs twice in our solar system, it suggests that life could be common."
Europa, located 628 million kilometers from Earth, is slightly larger than our Moon, but the similarities end there. If Europa were in the sky, it would appear five times brighter than the Moon due to its reflective ice surface. Its icy shell could be 25 kilometers thick, potentially covering a vast ocean of salty water. It is also thought that chemical compounds facilitating the formation of simple life forms may exist within this ocean.
Scientists first recognized the potential for life on Europa in the 1970s when they observed water ice through a telescope in Arizona. The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft captured the first close-up images.
In 1995, NASA's Galileo spacecraft passed over Europa's surface and took intriguing images of a dark, reddish-brown surface filled with cracks, which may contain salts and sulfur compounds that could support life.
