An illustration with purple, white, red, and blue circles showing the path of the silver Europa Clipper spacecraft as it travels to the Jupiter system. The blue circle shows the spacecraft's gravity assist at Earth, the red circle shows the spacecraft's path around Mars, and the purple path shows the spacecraft arriving at Jupiter. The spacecraft is shown on the white circle nearing Jupiter. In the center of the image is our Sun shown in yellowish orange.

Europa Clipper’s Looping Journey to Jupiter (Artist’s Concept)

This artist's concept depicts the long, looping path NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will take to reach the Jupiter system. Covering a distance of about 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers), the path swings past Mars, then Earth, using the two planets' gravity as a slingshot to add speed to the spacecraft's journey to Jupiter. Once in orbit at Jupiter, the spacecraft will conduct dozens of close flybys of the gas giant's icy moon Europa.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Download Share
TakenSeptember 9, 2024
Image CreditNASA/JPL-Caltech
Size1024x576px