by The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission has discovered ingredients for life for the first time.
JUICE has a long mission ahead of it. The spacecraft, set to launch in April 2023, will have to perform several gravity assists before reaching its target, Jupiter and three of its largest moons—Ganymede, Callisto and Europa—including an unprecedented maneuver involving both Earth and the moon.
During this maneuver in August 2024, JUICE performed tests with its Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer (MAJIS) and Submillimetre Wave Instrument (SWI), prior to collecting data on Jupiter’s moons.
“During the Earth flyby, SWI ‘listened’ to the signals of hundreds of molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, including water and the so-called ‘CHNOPS’ elements (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur),” ESA explained in a statement. “MAJIS also measured the composition of the atmosphere, detecting key molecules such as oxygen, ozone, carbon dioxide and water.”
In addition, the MAJIS instrument made detailed temperature maps of the planet. The good news is that ESA has confirmed that there are signs of life on Earth.
Spectra graphs showing the detection of life-associated molecules on Earth.
Image credits: ESA/Juice/SWI
While it is undoubtedly great news that there is life on this planet (let’s not say intelligent life yet), the detection also shows that the instruments are fully operational and capable of detecting clear signs of life, at least where it is abundant.
That mission is far from over. The probe still has two more flybys of Earth and one more of Venus to make before it reaches the gas giant in 2031. But now we know that its instruments can detect life, and that exciting times lie ahead.
