Juice Spacecraft from Jupiter has Confirmed that Earth is Habitable

MAJIS images of the Pacific Ocean. ESA

Juice spacecraft from Jupiter has confirmed that Earth is habitable and can support life.

During its flyby of Earth on August 20, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) detected essential life-supporting elements in Earth’s atmosphere.

This flyby allowed Juice to test and fine-tune its scientific instruments in space, preparing them for its mission to Jupiter.

Two of Juice’s tools, the Moons and Jupiter Imaging Spectrometer (MAJIS) and the Submillimetre Wave Instrument (SWI) gathered data confirming Earth’s conditions to support life.

In this case, ‘habitability’ refers to the presence of conditions needed for life to exist and thrive. This is especially relevant as scientists look at Jupiter’s icy moons, which are believed to hide oceans beneath their surfaces.

During the Earth flyby, SWI detected signals from atmospheric molecules, including water and key elements like carbon, hydrogen, and more nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur). The CHNOPS elements are the most common ingredients of living organisms.

source ESA