The search for life on Jupiter's moon Europa - the Europa Clipper Mission

00:00 Introduction
01:51 AD - Ground News
03:33 - What’s europa like and why do we think it has a liquid ocean?
06:28 - Why did NASA pick Europa over e.g. Saturn’s moon Enceladus?
07:53 - What experiments will the Europa Clipper mission do test whether Europa is habitable?
10:57 - Bloopers

Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV

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👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.

[Mikepow]

sorry, can you repeat that... i was too busy watching the cat 🤣

[RobinHood]

What we learned from this: a bunch of stuff about the Europa Clipper mission.
What Pippin learned from this: if I'm very, very quiet, Mommy won't notice I'm playing with things and I can be the star of the show.

[Zuringa]

Nice to see your assistant taking care of the paperwork. :)

[smartwombat]

Becky, I couldn't help smiling as Pippin tried to cause mayhem in the background.
I was so pleased to see the bloopers.
If it's not nailed down, it's a cat toy!

[elbenny]

There is definitely life on your desk. 🐈😂

[braddr]

I won't be surprised at all to see this episode getting double the normal viewership, once for the adorable kitten and then again to actually listen to the content.

[chupposity]

The contrast of Dr. Becky discussing merits of exploring Europa contrasted with the cat playing with the book/marker/pen was quite entertaining!

[enricosacchetti]

The cat was very interested in the scientific books on the desk

[WingwalkerBrewing]

My roommate was an engineer on the clipper. We had long talks about the engineering problems of getting a probe into that water.

[victorkrawchuk]

The kitten looks so organic!!! Finding multicellular life on Europa would be almost as much fun as watching her(?) play.

[montylc]

Excellent video, Doctor. I'm 63 and have been waiting for a mission like this since I was a teenager. I just hope to live long enough to see the science results.

[justinrezzonico]

The cat stole the show! Clearly we have a new social media star! 😂 🎉💫

[stuartarnold]

So we’re sending a probe to Encatadus? Think that was the gist of what she said … i was too busy watching the cat. We need more of him in future videos!

[BillMSmith]

"In a major press release astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst announced today that due to the incredible popularity of her YouTube channel, mostly due to the antics of her cat, she is able to self fund all her research projects for the foreseeable future. She went on to discuss in great detail her plans for the next several years. We think it had something to do with space, maybe. We were busy going "So cute!" and "Adorable!" to pay attention to her full statement."

[frankowalker]

I've no idea what all those graphs, diagrams and animations were about. Or what the excitable woman was saying.

But I loved the cat video. 😺

[lorddio]

Clipper would be a good name for a cat.

[seichhornchen]

What a beautiful cat. It certainly got ✨ engagement ✨

[waynedarronwalls]

I think it was the book of 2001:A Space Odyssey, there is the line "...all these worlds are yours, except Europa, attempt no landings there..."

[alder]

I’ve never thought I would ever say that Fool of a Took can look so adorable and cute <3 I had to watch some fragments twice because of this little ball of cuteness - worth it!!
Recently I’ve been thinking about our focus on Europa just in the context of finding out if there is life there. If we want to find an answer to the question if subsurface oceans of icy moons can harbor life, wouldn’t it be easier to send an orbiter to Enceladus, collect large samples from plumes and make it return to Earth, instead of potentially drilling through tens of kilometers of ice on Europa? We could look at those samples directly under a microscope here on Earth with our own eyes. The same could be done with Europa, once we know more about its plums.
The obvious problem with this is returning from Saturn/Jupiter back to Earth, which would require a lot of additional fuel and time. We could use some smart and well timed gravitational assist to shoot the probe back towards Earth or something like this.
I’m very much in favor of and I’m very excited for every future mission to Europa, but I cannot stop feeling that Enceladus is a low hanging fruit, ready to be picked up without much effort. I feel disappointed by the low interest in studying Ensaladas in general. It’s such a fascinating world almost handing out all its secrets on a silver plate.

[johncowan]

Will have to rewatch as was distracted by the cat! 😂