ESA gearing up for mission to discover if Jupiter’s moons can support life

An artist’s impression of Juice being released into space (ATG Medialab/ESA)

A European spacecraft is about to embark on a 6.6 billion km journey to explore whether Jupiter’s ocean-bearing moons can support life.

The six-tonne probe, named Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer), will be heading towards the solar system’s biggest planet carrying 10 scientific instruments, in what is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) biggest deep-space mission yet.