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Europa Clipper Captures Uranus With Star Tracker Camera

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft recently achieved a remarkable milestone by capturing an image of Uranus using its star tracker camera on November 5, 2025. This image, taken from a distance of approximately 2 billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from the planet, showcases Uranus as a prominent dot amidst a field of stars, highlighting the spacecraft’s capability to maintain orientation in deep space through its stellar reference units. The image not only serves as a stunning visual representation of the distant planet but also demonstrates the functionality of the star tracker, which is crucial for the spacecraft’s navigation as it journeys toward its primary destination—the icy moon Europa.

Launched in October 2024, the Europa Clipper mission is designed to arrive in the Jupiter system by 2030, where it will conduct around 50 flybys of Europa. The mission’s primary objective is to investigate whether the subsurface ocean beneath Europa’s icy shell could harbor conditions suitable for life. To achieve this, the spacecraft will focus on three key scientific goals: determining the thickness of the icy shell, analyzing the moon’s surface interactions with the ocean below, and characterizing its geological features. The insights gained from these explorations will significantly enhance our understanding of astrobiological potential in environments beyond Earth, making the Europa Clipper mission a pivotal step in the quest to find life elsewhere in the universe.

In addition to the impressive image of Uranus, the Europa Clipper team also created an animated GIF that shows the planet’s slight movement relative to the background stars over a span of ten hours. This visual aids in illustrating the vast distances and the dynamics of celestial bodies as observed from the spacecraft. As the mission progresses, the data collected will not only inform us about Europa but also contribute to broader discussions about the potential for life on other celestial bodies within our solar system and beyond. For more information on the Europa Clipper mission and its objectives, visit NASA’s dedicated page.