PIA26292: A View of Europa Clipper From Above
 Target Name:  Europa
 Mission:  Europa Clipper
 Spacecraft:  Europa Clipper
 Product Size:  7071 x 5300 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA26292.tif (90.36 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA26292.jpg (3.553 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:

Members of the media observed NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft from a viewing gallery about High Bay 1 in the historic Spacecraft Assembly Facility at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 11, 2024. The largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission, Europa Clipper is expected to launch in October 2024 on a six-year journey to the Jupiter system, where it will orbit the gas giant and study the ice-encased moon Europa.

Europa Clipper's main science goal is to determine whether there are places below the surface of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, that could support life. The mission's three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon's icy shell and its surface 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.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

Find more information about Europa here:

europa.nasa.gov

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2024-04-11