A Distant Spacecraft Has Confirmed That Earth Is Habitable

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A Distant Spacecraft Has Confirmed That Earth Is Habitable

A spacecraft en route to the frozen moons of

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has taken a very close look at Earth, and found that our homeworld is, in fact, habitable.

During an August 20 flyby, the ********* Space Agency’s

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probe turned its

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imaging spectrometer and

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submillimeter spectrometer to Earth’s atmosphere, looking for molecules and elements that, together, indicate that life could not only emerge and survive on a world, but may even be there right now.

Of course, we know that life is crawling around on Earth. But that, in fact, is precisely why astronomers looked.

Juice is going to the moons of Jupiter that are most likely to harbor life as we know it – so scientists wanted to make sure that its instruments are able to make the relevant detections once they get there.

“We are obviously not surprised by these results… it would have been extremely concerning to find out that Earth was not habitable!”

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of ESA.

“But they indicate that MAJIS and SWI will work very successfully at Jupiter, where they will help us investigate whether the icy moons could be potential habitats for past or present life.”

ESA/Juice/MAJIS)' data-src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/BbKW_qjsdzVmHjy6dXUf7Q--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU2NQ--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/sciencealert_160/3327758d94669b8acc86779c1a0eb17d">The Pacific Ocean, seen in three different wavelengths by MAJIS. The bottom strip is thermal infrared, which reveals temperature. (

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)

The two instruments measured different ingredients in Earth’s atmosphere. MAJIS measured the composition, including oxygen, water,

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, and carbon dioxide. It also compiled infrared heat maps of Earth’s surface.

SWI, on the other hand, took a tally of a suite of elements known as

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elements. That acronym stands for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur – the six most common elemental ingredients in living organisms.

Everything appeared to be all present and correct, which is good news for us on a few levels, when you think about it. The Juice team will be digging further into the data like ferocious little

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, analyzing it and making sure that the data collected is consistent with other data and observed reality.

Meanwhile, Juice, which

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, is continuing to take the scenic route to Jupiter, with

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of Earth and

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scheduled before its arrival in Jovian orbit, currently slated for July 2031.

Once there, it will examine the giant planet and moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa – each of which harbors a hidden ocean whose floor may be

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.

If there’s anything there, Juice represents our best hope to date of detecting it. Safe travels, little spacecraft.

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