The “Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer” or Juice, launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) has sent its first measurement data to Earth. The data was transmitted by the magnetometer for Juice (J-MAG), which measured the extension of the antenna. The ESA stated that J-MAG was activated on April 21, when the probe was about 1.7 million kilometers from Earth. The instrument measures the strength of the magnetic field with two sensors placed about three meters apart. The data indicated that everything worked out.
The Juice was launched on April 14 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, and is now more than 3.3 million kilometers from Earth. The ESA has stated that the probe is still busy extending all antennas and activating sensors and instruments, and this will take months. The Juice is expected to reach the Jupiter system in 2031, where it will study three moons – Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa – which may offer favorable conditions for the emergence of life.
The Juice probe has ten instruments on board, as well as several cameras, including two in the main body which will track the slow build-up. After its launch, several “selfies” of the probe in front of Earth were successful. Another camera, for higher resolution images, is expected to capture images of Jupiter and its icy moons later in the mission.
The entire mission is being monitored by the ESA control center in Darmstadt, Germany, which has financed around a fifth of the mission. The four Galilean moons discovered by the Italian explorer Galileo Galilei in 1610, including Io, will also be studied during the mission.
