JUICE mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) A host of experiments is set to launch Thursday from the European Spaceport in French Guiana, including a bold new trip to Jupiter and its moons, from Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science. The launch is scheduled to begin at 3:15 pm Israel time.
The JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission is ESA’s largest mission to date, and is funded by Israel’s participation. israel space agency, which is under the aegis of the Ministry of Science and Technology. This will be the first time Israeli technology will go beyond Earth’s orbit.
The unmanned probe will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket as it breaches the atmosphere on a journey of 900 million kilometres, first a flyby of Venus and then three flybys of Earth. This will help the probe build up enough momentum to slingshot it toward Jupiter.
It is estimated that the probe will not reach Jupiter until July 2031, when it will officially begin its four-year mission: orbiting the largest planet in the Solar System approximately 100 times to study its atmosphere as well as observe Ganymede. Discovering the Moons Callisto and Europa.
What is Israel’s role in the Zeus mission to Jupiter?
TAGGING WITH THE JUICE MISSION Weizmann’s Prof. One major experiment, led by Dr. Yohai Kaspi and Dr. Elie Galanti, will let them probe Jupiter’s atmosphere.
This is not the first time that these two have been involved in international space missions. Kaspi in particular has caused a stir in the past with its research on Jupiter. Back in 2021, working on data from NASA’s Juno mission, he was able to produce the first depth Measurements of Jupiter’s famous red spotRevealing new information on the formation of storms on the planet.
Now, he and Galanti are set to achieve similar success.
“What we’re doing is sending a radio beam from the spacecraft to Earth and when it goes through the atmosphere, it gets distorted which lets us get temperature readings,” explained Kaspi. jerusalem post,
“We will create a 3D map of Jupiter’s temperature, which no one has ever done before,” he said, noting that the JUICE mission will be complimentary to the data collected from Juno.
“We will create a 3D map of Jupiter’s temperature, which no one has done before.”
Prof. Yohai Kaspi
In this helps the unique class of JUICE probes.
“The main goal of JUICE is to study icy moons, so the orbit is going to be very unique, which means we can get these samples at different places on Jupiter,” Kaspi said. “We’re taking advantage of that to study itself and the environment below it.”
It may also help solve the mystery of Jupiter’s solid core. Scientists have long believed that gas giants like Jupiter have solid cores, but some scientists have begun to find this less likely.
“We think it may have a diffuse core or fuzzy core, something more like mixed plasma rather than rock,” Kaspi said.
He also said that it could help shed light on the origin of the Solar System, as Jupiter is the oldest known planet.
Jerusalem-made Israeli clock on its way to Jupiter
All of these discoveries will be made possible through the use of the Ultra Stable Oscillator, an extremely complex and sensitive timepiece that will allow it to conduct some of the most precise measurements humanly possible.
“It’s so precise that if you run it for 100,000 years, it will only lose less than a second,” said the Weizmann scientist.
The way this instrument was first created was almost accidental.
“The oscillator was supposed to come from NASA,” Kaspi explained, noting that the JUICE mission was originally a joint effort between ESA and NASA. “But then NASA had a budget cut and decided to pull out. So we started looking for another way to build one, and by chance, we bumped into the Israeli company Accubeat.”
Located in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim Industrial Zone, AccuBeat is one of the few companies in the world that manufactures atomic clocks. However, at the time, it was not involved in space technology and was limited to making watches for civilian and military use.
“AccuBeat’s vast experience and knowledge helped usher in the development of a technology with unprecedented capabilities,” said Benny Levy, CEO of AccuBeat. “We are proud and excited to be part of a landmark research project whose results could lead to sensational discoveries in the worlds of science, space and humanity as a whole.”
While this is the first time Israeli-built technology is going beyond Earth’s orbit, it is also a historic moment for ESA.
“Until now, the outer solar system was only NASA’s territory, but now ESA is going to Jupiter on an independent mission,” Kaspi said.
Joint NASA experiments study the mysteries and surprises of Jupiter’s icy moons
In addition to studying Jupiter’s atmosphere, Weizmann scientists will also help study the moons.
“The Moon has an ionosphere, think of it as a very thin layer of atmosphere. It’s so thin it’s like ions floating around in space. We’ll study them,” Kaspi explained.
“Icy moons may also have some plumes of water spitting out into space from underground oceans, and JUICE is trying to measure those as well. The main mission is to characterize the water oceans.”
Jupiter’s moons have long been the subject of fierce scientific curiosity. These three moons in particular are completely frozen, covered in ice. but under that snow the giant is supposed to oceans of still liquid water – something supported by prior magnetic field measurements. In fact, these planets may possibly contain the largest amounts of water in the Solar System.
And since liquid oceans also indicate the presence of heat to keep water in its liquid form, this may also offer attractive possibility of finding alien life – Or at least, if moons can support life.
In fact, NASA A is also planned Mission to the Moon Europa For the same reason, Europa Clipper, which was held up after JUICE was ejected, is scheduled to launch in October 2024 – although due to the different rocket used, it may actually reach Jupiter before JUICE. .
This is another important possibility as it means that there will be two probes in orbit around Jupiter at the same time – something that has never happened before.
“These outer Solar System probes usually only happen once every decade,” Kaspi said. “Mission. It’s gotten really interesting because if you have two approaches around Jupiter, you can do some pretty unique experiments.
“Until then one of the things we’re going to do is have a joint science mission. None of this was originally planned, but now we can start new experiments.”