What severe environmental hazard from Jupiter most heavily bombards Io and Europa during exploration?
Answer
Jupiter’s immense magnetosphere radiation
The environment immediately surrounding Jupiter poses a critical danger to any spacecraft orbiting or even passing close to the inner Galilean moons, namely Io and Europa. Jupiter possesses an immense magnetosphere that traps high-energy charged particles, creating an intensely hostile radiation environment. This radiation constantly bombards these inner worlds. The intensity is so great that the environment near Europa can be hundreds of times more severe than what astronauts encounter in low Earth orbit, necessitating the use of specialized, heavily shielded, or radiation-hardened electronics for successful long-duration missions.
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