NASA ’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is currentlyon its long journeythrough the solar system , headed for Jupiter ’s arctic moon of Europa . There , it ’s hoping to discover whether Europa could ever have keep going living — but before it arrives , it ’s doing some investigating closer to house as well .
NASA scientist lately used Europa Clipper ’s instruments to take readings of Mars , as the space vehicle was give-up the ghost within just 550 miles of the blood-red major planet ’s surface on March 1 . The space vehicle was using the gravity of Mars to get a boost along its journey , but while doing so there was also an chance to do some testing .
The team tested out one of Clipper ’s instruments , an infrared camera called the Europa Thermal Imaging System ( E - THEMIS ) , by snapping some images of Mars on the way past . The camera testify the temperature of different region , and it will be used to study parts of the aerofoil of Europa which are covered in ridges and faulting , thought to be triggered by water rising up from the subsurface sea and breaking through the icy crust .
This picture of Mars is a composite of several images captured by Europa Clipper’s thermal imager on March 1. Bright regions are relatively warm, with temperatures of about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). Darker areas are colder. The darkest region at the top is the northern polar cap and is about minus 190 F (minus 125 C).NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
“ We need to measure the temperature of those features , ” say Phil Christensen of Arizona State University , principal research worker of E - THEMIS . “ If Europa is a really active spot , those fractures will be warm than the surrounding methamphetamine hydrochloride where the ocean come close to the surface . Or if water erupted onto the open hundreds to thousands of yr ago , then those surfaces could still be relatively warm . ”
The persona of Mars taken by vitamin E - THERMIS show the temperature across the planet , with the warm parts near the equator and the coldest office up at the ice caps at the poles . One thousand grayscale images were capture , and these were stacked together to create a colour composite showing temperature .
As well as demonstrate features of Mars , these paradigm were a opportunity to test out the instrument against known data and check everything on board the spacecraft was working correctly , include its radar instrument as well .
This picture of Mars is a colorized composite of several images captured by Europa Clipper’s thermal imager. Warm colors represent relatively warm temperatures; red areas are about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius), and purple regions are about minus 190 F (minus 125 C).NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
“ We wanted no surprise in these new figure , ” Christensen said . “ The destination was to capture imaging of a planetary body we know inordinately well and make certain the dataset looks exactly the way it should , based on 20 years of instruments documenting Mars . ”
With everything looking salutary , limiter is now continuing on its journeying , expected to go far at Jupiter in 2030 .
