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Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper
(Launch Photography)
Explanation:
NASA's
Europa Clipper
is now headed toward an ocean world beyond Earth.
The large spacecraft is tucked into the payload fairing atop the
Falcon Heavy rocket in this
photo, taken
at Kennedy Space Center
the day before the mission's successful October 14 launch.
Europa Clipper's interplanetary voyage will first take it to Mars,
then back to Earth, and then on to Jupiter on
gravity assist
trajectories
that will allow it to enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030.
Once orbiting Jupiter, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times,
exploring a Jovian moon
with a global subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life.
Posing in the background next to the floodlit rocket
is Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS, about a day after the comet's closest approach to
Earth.
A current darling of evening skies,
the naked-eye comet is a
vistor
from the distant Oort cloud
Growing Gallery:
Comet
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet
Publications with words: comet
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 16 Á A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko
- APOD: 2024 November 27 Á The Meteor and the Comet
- APOD: 2024 November 11 Á The Unusual Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas
- APOD: 2024 November 6 Á Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas over the Dolomites
- APOD: 2024 October 21 Á Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS over California
- Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS Flys Away
- Most of Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS