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PIA24325: Europa Clipper's Europa Imaging System in the Works
An engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) works with an engineering model of part of the Europa Imaging System (EIS) that will fly aboard NASA's Europa Clipper.
 Mission:  Europa Clipper 
 Spacecraft:  Europa Clipper
 Instrument:  Europa Imaging System - Wide Angle 
 Product Size:  4608 x 3456 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Johns Hopkins University/APL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA24325.tif (37.86 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA24325.jpg (1.712 MB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

A mechanical engineer in a clean room at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, installs the detector electronics for the engineering model of the Wide Angle Camera (WAC), one of two cameras that make up the Europa Imaging System (EIS). EIS is one of the science instruments that will fly aboard NASA's Europa Clipper.

EIS data will offer fresh insights into Europa's geological structure and processes and will be used to search for evidence of recent or current geologic activity, including potential erupting plumes.

With an internal global ocean twice the size of Earth's oceans combined, Europa may have the potential to harbor life. NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will swoop around Jupiter on an elliptical path, dipping close to the moon on each flyby to collect data. Understanding Europa's habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet. Europa Clipper is aiming for a launch readiness date of 2024.

More information about Europa and Europa Clipper can be found here: europa.nasa.gov.

Image Credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

Image Addition Date:
2021-04-01