Alien Oceans: NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission | Exploratorium
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Alien Oceans: NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission
Where is the best place to find living life beyond Earth? It may be that the small, ice-covered moons of Jupiter and Saturn harbor some of the most habitable real estate in our Solar System. Life loves liquid water and these moons have lots of it.
NASA is launching a spacecraft to Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa in October 2024 to learn more about its potential habitability. Scientists describe Europa as an “ocean world” because decades of evidence from analysis of spacecraft observations strongly suggest that an ocean of liquid water is hidden beneath the moon’s icy surface. The search for life beyond Earth is one of NASA’s primary objectives. If humans are to truly understand our place in the Universe, we must learn whether our planet is the only place where life exists. Life needs a source of energy, the presence of certain chemical compounds, and temperatures that allow liquid water to exist. Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa seems to be just such a place! Join us to learn more from Dr. Kevin Peter Hand, planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory about Europa and why NASA wants to go there.
Bio:
Dr. Kevin Peter Hand is a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where he directs the Ocean Worlds Lab. His research focuses on the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the solar system with an emphasis on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. From 2011 to 2016 he served as Deputy Chief Scientist for Solar System Exploration at JPL, and from 2015-2023 he was Project Scientist for the NASA’s Europa Lander mission concept. He is the Principal Investigator of the SHERLOC spectrometer onboard the Mars Perseverance rover, which is tasked with seeking signs of habitability and past life on Mars. He is also a Co-I on the Europa Clipper mission, and a Co-I on the Titan Dragonfly mission.