The European Space Agency sent a mission to Jupiter

Today, on April 14, the European Space Agency sent a special mission from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana to Jupiter on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle.

The 1.6 billion euro project is called Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice). The purpose of the mission is to find out whether the Jupiter moons have the conditions necessary to support life.

The station should reach Jupiter (628 million km from Earth) in July 2031. The scientific mission will end in September 2035.

The main task of Juice is not to find life directly, but to determine the environment in which it can arise. If Jupiter, a gas planet, is uninhabitable, its moons Europa and Ganymede are ideal candidates: under the icy surface they contain oceans consisting of liquid water — only liquid water allows life to arise.