(CNN) The European Space Agency has sent a spacecraft to discover Jupiter and 3 of its biggest and most intriguing moons.

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, launched Friday at eight:14 a.m. ET aboard an Ariane five rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The spacecraft separated from the Ariane five rocket 28 minutes immediately after launch. More than the course of the subsequent 17 days, Juice will deploy its solar arrays, antennas and other instruments, followed by 3 months of testing and preparing the instruments.

Kids from about the globe shared art inspired by Juice two years ago. Ten-year-old Yaryna’s artwork won the competitors to grow to be the mission’s logo and it was added to the nose of the rocket carrying Juice.

Juice will take eight years to attain Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar technique. Through its lengthy cruise, the spacecraft will make use of some gravitational slingshots as it flies by Earth, our moon and Venus to assist with the journey.

INTERACTIVE: The search for life in our solar technique

Juice lifted off Friday morning from French Guiana.

As soon as Juice arrives at Jupiter in July 2031, the spacecraft will devote about 3 and a half years orbiting the gas giant and conducting flybys of 3 of its moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. Toward the finish of the mission, Juice will concentrate solely on orbiting Ganymede, creating it the very first spacecraft to ever orbit a moon in the outer solar technique.

An illustration depicts Juice on its way to Jupiter.

Ganymede, Callisto and Europa are ice-covered worlds that may well include subsurface oceans that are potentially habitable for life.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, launching in 2024, is anticipated to attain Jupiter in April 2030 and conduct almost 50 flybys of Europa, ultimately reaching just 16 miles (25 kilometers) above the moon’s surface.

With each other, the two missions could unlock some of the greatest mysteries about Jupiter and its moons.

Up close with the king of the solar technique

Exploration of Jupiter started with NASA’s Pioneer and Voyager missions in the 1970s, followed by committed Jupiter missions like Galileo and the Juno probe. Juno has been orbiting Jupiter and flying by some of its moons due to the fact 2016.

The Juice mission has 5 major objectives, which includes making use of its potent suite of ten instruments to characterize the 3 icy moons and decide whether or not they harbor oceans, uncover what tends to make Ganymede so exclusive and decide if the moons are potentially habitable for life.

Planetary scientists want to know how deep the oceans are, if they include salty or fresh water and how that water interacts with the ice shell of every single moon. Ganymede, Callisto and Europa also have distinctive surfaces. Juice could reveal what type of activity has triggered some of them to appear dark and cratered or paler and grooved.

Ganymede is the biggest moon in the solar technique, bigger than Pluto and Mercury, and it really is the only a single that has a magnetic field comparable to Earth. Juice’s instruments can reveal the moon’s rotation, gravity, shape, interior structure and composition and peer by means of its icy crust making use of radar.

An artist’s rendering depicts Juice flying by Ganymede with Jupiter in the background.

Juice will also conduct a detailed evaluation of Jupiter to decide how the complicated magnetic and radiation atmosphere about this enormous planet shaped its moons, as effectively as how Jupiter formed in the very first spot. Understanding a lot more of Jupiter’s origin story can assist scientists apply these findings to Jupiter-like planets discovered outdoors of our solar technique.

Jupiter’s magnetic field is 20 occasions stronger than Earth’s and it has a harsh radiation atmosphere, each of which effect its moons. The Juice mission was made to unravel what requires spot as Jupiter interacts with its moons, which includes auroras, hot spots, radio emissions and waves of charged particles.

The possible for life

Despite the fact that the 3 moons are encased in thick ice shells, interior heating could be taking spot at every single moon’s core — and that warmth could make the interior oceans achievable habitats for previous or current life.

Juice can search the moons for proof of the constructing blocks of life, which includes components like carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron and magnesium.

Earlier missions like Galileo and Cassini, which visited Saturn and its moons, confirmed that liquid water can be discovered on planets and moons far away from the sun — and that water is probably to exist beneath the surface.

“I feel Juice is a confirmation that our understanding of exactly where to search for possible habitability has changed in the final 20 years,” stated Michele Dougherty, Royal Society analysis professor at Imperial College London and principal investigator of Juice’s magnetometer.

Life as we comprehend it on Earth calls for liquid water, a heat supply and organic material — “and then you want these very first 3 components to be steady sufficient more than a lengthy sufficient period of time that a thing can essentially take place,” Dougherty stated.

Juice will fly by Europa twice.

“With Juice, we want to confirm there is liquid water in these moons, confirm their heat sources. Other instruments will be capable to remotely sense whether or not there is organic material on the surface as effectively. And so it really is placing all of these components with each other,” she stated.

Surviving Jupiter

Juice’s truck-size spacecraft has been made to survive a lengthy journey to Jupiter — and it has to survive the extremes of the gas giant’s atmosphere as soon as it arrives. Two cross-shaped solar arrays will offer the spacecraft with energy and lead-lined vaults safeguard its most sensitive electronics.

The ESA-led mission consists of contributions from NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. Testing and modeling of Jupiter’s radiation belts permitted engineers to prepare for what Juice will encounter.

“A crucial achievement of this model for us was to show that what at very first seemed to be a hazardous spot was not fully out of attain,” stated Christian Erd, Juice spacecraft and technique manager, in a statement. “About 3 and a half years at Jupiter will involve the equivalent radiation exposure of a telecommunications satellite in geostationary Earth orbit for 20 years — which we have a lot of practical experience in managing.”

Juice can investigate why every single moon, like Callisto, has a distinctive surface.

In order to assist Juice survive, its trajectory was made to fly previous Callisto 21 occasions but only swing by Europa twice. Europa is the closest to Jupiter and sits effectively inside its radiation halo. Just two orbits of the moon will lead to the spacecraft to practical experience a third of its general radiation exposure.

Some of Juice’s instruments are shielded, whilst other people will be exposed to the components to probe the atmospheres of Jupiter and its moons. Many imagers and sensors will capture and send back information across distinctive wavelengths of light.

Provided the eventual distance amongst the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a a single-way signal to Juice. But that is practically nothing compared to the years-lengthy wait for Juice to arrive at Jupiter.

Scientists are currently anticipating the exclusive information Juice will return.

“I feel the most essential time is the very first flyby we have of Ganymede,” Dougherty stated. “The very first a single or two flybys is when we are going to confirm the existence of an ocean.”

CNN’s Katie Hunt contributed to reporting.