The European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft lifts off on Thursday, entering a new phase in the search for extraterrestrial life.
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer launches aboard the Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
JUICE will make detailed observations of the giant gas planet and its three ocean-bearing moons, including Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
It is fitted with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments, including one led by NASA.
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The JUICE mission launch site is shown on April 12, 2023, in Kourou, French Guiana. (Pool / Didier Lebrun / Photonews via Getty Images)
The mission will characterize the moons as planetary objects and as possible habitats for past or present life, exploring Jupiter’s magnetic, radiation and plasma environment in detail, and studying the wider system as an archetype for gas giants across the universe.
In the two-plus weeks after…
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