The fascinating surface of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view, made from images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. This is the color view of Europa from Galileo that shows the largest portion of the moon's surface at the highest resolution. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute

NASA will announce on Tuesday, May 26, the selection of science instruments for a mission to Europa, to investigate whether Jupiter’s icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life.

The announcement will air live on NASA Television and NASA.gov at 2 p.m. EDT from the NASA TV studio at the agency’s Headquarters, 300 E Street SW in Washington. There is limited seating in the NASA TV studio for media who would like to attend in person. To arrange access, email Laurie Cantillo at laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov no later than 10 a.m. Tuesday.   

NASA received 33 proposals for science instruments to fly onboard a Europa mission, which would conduct repeated close flybys of the small moon during a three-year period.

Participants in the announcement will be:

• John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters
• Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
• Curt Niebur, Europa program scientist, NASA Headquarters

To participate by phone, media must contact Steve Cole at 202-358-0918 or stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov and provide their media affiliation no later than 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Media and the public also may ask questions via Twitter using #askNASA.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For facts about Europa visit:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jup_Europa

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