NASA has mounted all nine science instruments on its highly anticipated Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will launch toward Jupiter's icy ocean moon this year.
NASA's Cassini mission, which ended six years ago, spotted a key ingredient needed for life as we know it on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, a new study reports.
Astrobiologists suspect there could be alien life just out of reach in our solar system, in oceans hidden beneath icy crusts on moons circling Jupiter and Saturn. But unlike the surface of Mars, which can be explored by rovers and landers, these mysterious oceans are currently inaccessible to us. In an effort to change that, researchers convened this year to design a novel mission that could finally reveal what’s in those distant water worlds.