Space News & Blog Articles

Scouting mission locations in the outer solar system is complicated. It is difficult to know what you find before you get there with a probe, and once you’re already there, changing trajectories to look at the most exciting parts of the system is difficult. A much better option would be to map out the system in detail before the probe arrives. That is precisely what a team at the University of Leicester is doing in the expectation of the arrival of the JUICE and Europa Clipper probes to the Jupiter system.

To do so, they utilized one of the most powerful telescopes in the world. The Very Large Telescope, located in Chile, turned toward Europa and Ganymede, two Galilean moons in the Jupiter system that JUICE & Europa Clipper hope to visit.

VLT partially operates in the infrared, allowing Ph.D. student Oliver King to snap images of the two moons and subject them to a form of spectroscopy. Comparing data collected by VLT to spectrographs of known materials on Earth would allow an estimation of the composition of the moon’s surfaces.

In a surprise to no one familiar with the Jupiter system, Europa’s surface is primarily made up of ice. Still, there are some other materials contaminating the surface, thereby skewing the spectroscopy results. One example of such a contaminant is a terrifying form of a dangerous chemical. The side of Europa that is most exposed to the stray gases of the Jupiter system contains a heightened amount of sulfuric acid frost, whose existence makes sense when thinking about the chemistry. However, it is still startling to find it on the surface of a moon.

Ganymede is a bit more of a mixed bag. The VLT data classify material of the surface into two distinct categories – water ice and a dark grey material, which the researchers weren’t able to positively identify. Many of Ganymede’s watery areas were exposed after impacts from asteroids or comets and appear as bright blue in the images VLT took. Considered to be “young” by astronomical standards, those sections of the surface provide more insight into what geological process may be ongoing under the surface.

Where better to grow plants that on the Moon? Well, lots of places, to be honest, including almost everywhere on planet Earth. But that’s not going to stop people from trying to do so – especially as plants grown in space are going to be critical to any long-term space exploration program, and the Moon seems as good a place as any to do that. So the idea of a team of scientists from Australia, Israel, South Africa, and the US to grow some plants on the Moon by 2025 might not be as far-fetched as it seems.

The project, known as the Australian Lunar Experiment Promoting Horticulture (ALEPH), is sponsored by Lunaria One, an Australian start-up that plans to grow plants continually on the Moon. As with any significant undertaking, it must begin with a single step, and ALEPH is that first step.

That first step will require a launch to the Moon, though, and Lunaria One plans to hitch a ride aboard the Beresheet 2 lunar lander, a private mission to the Moon run by Israeli company SpaceIL. Planned for a 2024 launch, the landers would most likely use a SpaceX rocket in order to make their way to the lunar surface. 

Once there, the plan is to monitor a set of specially designed, hermetically sealed pods that will contain the plants. Most likely, these observations will happen for about three days, and the real crux of the mission is to get people interested in watching its progress. Lunaria One states that engaging interested parties, especially school children, in watching the mission’s progress is one of its primary goals.

What they’ll be watching is, hopefully, life flourishing in harsh conditions. The plants selected for this mission are known for their hearty reputation. One, known as Triogon loliiformis, is famous for its ability to survive with little to no water. It enters a dormant state, which will be useful when being shipped to the Moon, but upon the reintroduction of water, it quickly reverts to its usual self.

That’s no moon … wait … yes, it is, and more!

ESA’s Mars Express has captured an unusual and rare occultation, all from its vantage point in orbit of Mars.  The spacecraft’s orbit brought it to the right place where it could witness the moment Mars’ small moon Deimos passed in front of Jupiter and its four largest moons. Scientists say that celestial alignments like these enable a more precise determination of the Martian moons’ orbits.

If you’ve seen Jupiter and its moons through binoculars or a small telescope, you might be envious of Mars Express’ view, especially when Deimos passes through the field of view.

ESA said this sequence is made up of a series of 80 images taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera onboard Mars Express on February 14, 2022. In the foreground, the images show the irregular shaped Deimos, with its rocky and cratered surface, and in the background Jupiter and the four Galilean satellites are visible. Jupiter is the large bright white spot and the moons appear as small white specks of light.

The distance between Mars Express and Jupiter is about 745 million km (463 million miles). In order for distant Jupiter and the moons to show up in this video, the images have contrast enhanced. Otherwise, because of the difference in brightness compared to the nearby Deimos, the distant objects would not have been visible.