A spacecraft has blasted into space on a mission that will investigate whether one of Jupiter’s moons could support life.
Nasa’s Europa Clipper took off on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 5.06pm on Monday, after launch was delayed from last week because of hurricane Milton.
It will now travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometres), finally arriving at the biggest planet in the solar system in April 2030.
What it finds could change what scientists believe about life in the solar system.
The mission aims to confirm that a vast ocean exists beneath Europa’s icy surface, making it a promising place to study habitability for life beyond Earth.
The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter, and carry out 49 close flybys of Europa – one of its 95 moons.
Some evidence suggests that the ingredients for life may exist on the moon right now.
On each orbit, the spacecraft will spend less than a day in the dangerous radiation zone near Europa before zipping back out.
Then some two to three weeks later, it will repeat the process.
During the flybys, the spacecraft will fly at altitudes as low as 16 miles (25 kilometres) above the surface, and in order to scan the entire moon it will soar over a different location during each flyby.
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