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Europa-Cam, Reviewed

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It’s here (04 Dec 2024): the SSR writeup of Europa Clipper’s main camera(s).

Turtle, E. P. McEwen, A. S. Patterson, G. W. et al. The Europa Imaging System (EIS)
Investigation Vol 220, article no. 91,  s11214-024-01115-9

I’ve written about Europa Clipper before. The mission parameters, inherent and selected, will make secondary science at asteroids and other ‘small bodies’ (such as irregular satellites) natural and choice. By necessity, Europa Clipper will loop through the inner Solar System multiple times on its way to its final station, and this includes twice past the Main Belt. In turn, the main camera must be on the sharper side as probe cameras go; otherwise, the mission would only get brief looks during its slashing, high-speed runs past Europa. (Hence, the name- the probe must limit its time spent at Europa’s radius from Jupiter, or Jovian radiation would shorten the mission too much.) Combined, this means slashing, high-speed flybys of asteroids can still result in science data.

Once at Jupiter, EC apojoves (the rest of the orbits, far from Europa and Jupiter) will likely, at some point, approach irregular satellites. These distant, tiny satellites of Jupiter are unlikely to be primordial (~4 billion years old), and more likely captured comets or Centaur objects. In our best ground telescopes, the irregulars are just dots of light. Putting a lens on these small satellites will give us valuable information on Centaurs, comets, and other transients of the outer Solar System we might otherwise miss.

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