On Monday, October 14th a spacecraft named the Europa Clipper was launched to Jupiter’s moon, Europa. This spacecraft will travel approximately 1.8 billion miles and reach its destination in April 2030.

The reason why they sent the spacecraft out was to find potential life on Europa as beforehand Scientists have studied Europa and found there’s a possibility that there is water beneath its icy crust on it. There is strong evidence that supports the fact that Europa has an ocean so NASA and SpaceX went all out and worked together to generate a spacecraft that is able to fly to Europa in order to confirm if Europa really does have an ocean.

There is a possibility of life on Europa because life needs 3 things which are water, an energy source, and organic compounds. Now scientists have found there is a possibility that Europa has all three, if it has an ocean, high energy particles in Jupiter’s radiation belts could provide the energy needed, tidal warming energy from the bending and flexing of the moon would be another source of energy.

Finally, organic compounds can be provided from the rocks themselves where they are in contact with the ocean. This is very important as we can advance further in uncovering the mysteries of this universe if we find the possibility of life there. We can find the answer to many questions about this universe like if aliens exist or not, we can maybe move to Europa in the far future as it’s in our solar system and is probably one of the closest.