The Juice project, short for “Jupiter icy moons explorer”, is described as the largest European space research project to date. The cost is equivalent to SEK 18 billion, according to Jan-Erik Wahlund, space physicist and research leader for one of the instruments on board Juice.
Scientists are fairly certain that two of the large moons have oceans under thick ice sheets. But how do you find out if there are possibilities for life in the ocean when you can’t stand on the ice but whiz around the moon in orbit?
“It’s going to be a bit Christmas Eve”
– We are looking for electromagnetic signals. The seas are salty. Jupiter has a strong magnetic field that sweeps past the moon, then measurable electric currents arise in the oceans. The oceans also move with a certain speed against the magnetic field, then we get additional measurable currents, explains Jan-Erik Wahlund and continues:
– We can also go through the water plumes that come up from cracks in the ice on the moon Europa. Then instruments can see what is in the water. If we were to find amino acids, then it will be a bit of Christmas Eve for us.
Such a finding would be sensational because it is amino acids that build the body’s proteins.
Fatal radiation
The giant planet Jupiter emits very strong radiation, which makes it directly dangerous to life. All instruments on board had to be protected, partly with heavy lead plates.
Of ten instruments on board, two are from Sweden: the particle meter comes from the Institute for Space Physics in Kiruna and the radio and plasma wave instrument from the Institute for Space Physics in Uppsala.
The journey to Jupiter takes eight years and results from the measurements will only come when the probe has entered the correct orbit around the large moons.
– When it arrives, I will be retired. But I’m a researcher, I’m not going to stop. Just get rid of administrative tasks and then research further, says Jan-Erik Wahlund.