How can imaging Mars in infrared help NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft be better prepared as it continues its journey to Jupiter? This is what a team of scientists hope to address as Europa Clipper tested its Europa Thermal Imaging System (E-THEMIS) instrument when it recently flew 550 miles (884 kilometers) past the Red Planet, using the planet’s gravity to change the spacecraft's direction.
While Europa Clipper flew past Mars on March 1, the thousands of grayscale images it obtained weren’t transmitted to Earth until May 5. After running the images through specialized software that provided color indicating levels of heat, the E-THEMIS team was able ascertain hotter and cooler places across the entire surface of Mars. For Europa, the E-THEMIS team will image along the small moon’s fractures and ridges that crisscross and cover almost the entire surface. Understanding heat patterns near these locations could provide scientists with insight into the depth of the liquid ocean that resides beneath the icy surface.
Colorized composite image of Mars obtained by Europa Clipper’s E-THEMIS instrument with warm colors depicting relatively warm temperatures; red areas are approximately 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius), and purple regions are approximately minus 190 F (minus 125 C). (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
“We want to measure the temperature of those features,” said Dr. Phil Christensen, who is who is a Reents’ Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and principal investigator of E-THEMIS. “If Europa is a really active place, those fractures will be warmer than the surrounding ice where the ocean comes close to the surface. Or if water erupted onto the surface hundreds to thousands of years ago, then those surfaces could still be relatively warm.”
Launched in October 2024, Europa Clipper is slated to arrive at the Jupiter system in April 2030 with the goal of ascertaining the potential habitability of Europa while accomplishing dozens of elongated flybys of the small moon to avoid spending too much time within Jupiter’s powerful radiation belts. Europa is hypothesized to house more than twice as much liquid water as all of Earth’s oceans, thus potentially providing the necessary ingredients for life as we know it.
How will this E-THEMIS test at Mars help Europa Clipper accomplish its mission when it arrives at the Jupiter system in 2030? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: NASA JPL