The voyage will span 1.8 billion miles over 5.5 years
In a nutshell: The Europa Clipper mission is an important step in our understanding of potentially habitable worlds beyond Earth. By studying Europa's composition, internal structure, and potential for hosting organic compounds, scientists hope to gain insights into the prevalence of habitable environments in our solar system and beyond.
Why it matters: Carbon is one of the primary building blocks of life as we know it. Therefore, the detection of carbon signs on celestial bodies other than Earth is always a significant discovery. Thanks to JWST's powerful instruments, scientists now have evidence that carbon should be abundant on one of the most promising targets for extraterrestrial life research.