Solar System in fiction close to the Sun and its surface was exposed to extremes of temperature. The asteroids were too tiny and airless. By the early 20th century, prospects for life in the Solar System focused on Venus, the larger moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and especially Mars. With the onset of the Space Age, planetary probes cast increasing doubt on the likelihood of extraterrestrial life in the Solar System, at least life of any magnitude greater than organisms such as bacteria. By the mid-1960s, it was firmly established that life could have no foothold on the hostile surfaces of Mercury or Venus,
Exploration of Jupiter is also searching for clues about how Jupiter formed, including whether the planet has a rocky core, the amount of water present within the deep atmosphere, and how the mass is distributed within the planet. "Juno" also studies Jupiter's deep winds, which can reach speeds of 600 km/h. ESA's Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) has been selected as part of ESA's Cosmic Vision science program. It is expected to launch in 2022 and, after a series of flybys in the inner Solar System, arrive in 2030. In 2012, the European Space Agency's selected the "JUpiter ICy moon Explorer" (JUICE) as