A spacecraft heading towards Jupiter's moon Europa the world

The icy moon of Jupiter has long been of great interest to space scientists. Europa is slightly larger than our Moon but is covered by a layer of ice 25 kilometers thick.

Beneath the surface, scientists believe there may be a massive ocean containing up to twice the amount of water as all of Earth's oceans, say scientists. BBC.

The ocean is believed to be filled with salt water and may contain chemicals that are important components when it comes to a basic requirement for life.

Expert: It can be shown that life is normal

Europa is seen as one of the most likely places to find life in our solar system.

– If life turns out to have arisen twice in our solar system alone, it could mean that life in space is very common, astrobiologist Mark Fox-Powell from the Open University tells the BBC.

Already in the 1970s, scientists began to doubt the possibility of the existence of conditions for life on Europa. In the same decade, the first close-up photographs were taken when the American space probes Voyager 1 and 2 passed by.

Arrived in several years

The Europa Clipper spacecraft was sent into space on Monday to begin its journey to Europa, but it will take some time. Europe is about 628 million kilometers away from Earth, and the Europa Clipper is not expected to approach the aforementioned moon until 2030.

With the help of a specially designed laser, the rover will investigate what is hiding beneath the thick surface of the ice.

Once Clipper arrives, it will pass by Europa about 50 times and try to piece together how the Moon formed and functions.

The rover will not directly search for life, but will check whether there are strong conditions.

By better understanding the lunar surface, the hope is to know how to land on the moon in the future.