Some of the coolest places in the solar system aren't actually planets, but moons.

At least three of the moons of Jupiter, for instance, are thought to have buried oceans

under their hard crusts of ice.

That means liquid water.

And where there's water, there's a chance for life.

These satellite worlds will finally get their do soon with two new spacecraft dedicated

to studying them.

The first one just launched last week.

I'm Lee Billings.

I'm Clara Mosquitz, and this is Cosmos Quickly, the biweekly space podcast from Scientific

American.

Ariane 5 is now ready for launch here at Europe's Space Board in French Guyana.

Juice, safe and sound under the ferry.

What you just heard was the sound of the Jupiter icy moons explorer, also called Juice,

which blasted off from Kuru, French Guyana.

This mission is so exciting, Clara.

I know.

I can't believe that we're finally going to get a chance to look at these moons up close.

So tell me about this juice mission.

What do we need to know?

It's being run by the European Space Agency, or Issa, and it's slated to arrive at everyone's

favorite gas giant planet, sorry, Saturn, in 2031.

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