What is the origin of life on earth? Is there life on other planets?
These age-old questions may finally be answered when NASA’s Europa Clipper conducts 44 flybys of Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa, starting in April 2030. The spacecraft will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon has conditions suitable for the existence of life.
Europa is slightly smaller than Earth’s moon and is made mostly of silicate rocks. It has a water-ice shell and possibly an iron-nickel core. Its atmosphere is very thin and consists mostly of oxygen. It has cracks and streaks on its surface, but relatively few craters.
Europa has the smoothest surface of any solid object in the solar system. The apparent youthfulness and smoothness of the surface has led to the hypothesis that there is an ocean of water beneath the surface, which could conceivably be a habitat for alien life.