‘Violent solar events’ at a high risk this week amid severe weather on the sun - KXAN.com
The six-tonne spacecraft will make a series of flybys of Callisto, Ganymede and Europa, using an advanced package of instruments to investigate whether any of these worlds are habitable.
But the gravitational squeezing and pushing the giant planet gives its moons means they have the energy and warmth to retain vast quantities of liquid water at depth."We have a number of high-resolution cameras on this probe in all possible wavelengths - in infrared, the visible and ultraviolet," explained engineer Cyril Cavel, as he pointed out a collection of boxes hanging off one side of the silver and black satellite.Radar will also peer inside the moons; lidar - a laser measurement system - will make 3D maps of their surfaces; magnetometers will trace their complex electrical and magnetic environments; and sensors will sample the particles that whiz around them."We have two big vaults inside the spacecraft to protect the computers from radiation and to maintain them through a network of pipes at the same level of temperature," said thermal architect Séverine Deschamps.Clipper will be making the close-in measurements, but Juice will be watching at a distance to see what impact that has on the environment around Europa and whether we get bigger spots in the auroral lights on Jupiter."