Updates Juno Mission News and Updates

Nicholas Kang

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Update: It’s Never 'Groundhog Day' at Jupiter

Official NASA Press Statement: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/it-s-never-groundhog-day-at-jupiter

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Cyclones swirl around the south pole, and white oval storms can be seen near the limb -- the apparent edge of the planet -- in this image of Jupiter’s south polar region taken by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Updated Feb. 2, 2017 at 3:15 p.m. PST

NASA's Juno mission completed a close flyby of Jupiter on Thursday, Feb. 2, its latest science orbit of the mission.

All of Juno’s science instruments and the spacecraft's JunoCam were operating during the flyby to collect data that is now being returned to Earth. Juno is currently in a 53-day orbit, and its next close flyby of Jupiter will occur on March 27, 2017.

At the time of closest approach (called perijove), Juno was about 2,670 miles (4,300 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops and traveling at a speed of about 129,000 mph (57.8 kilometers per second) relative to the gas giant. All of Juno's eight science instruments, including the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, were on and collecting data during the flyby.
 
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Nicholas Kang

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NASA: NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Set for Fifth Jupiter Flyby

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NASA's Juno spacecraft will make its fifth flyby over Jupiter's mysterious cloud tops on Monday, March 27, at 1:52 a.m. PDT (4:52 a.m. EDT, 8:52 UTC).

At the time of closest approach (called perijove), Juno will be about 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops, traveling at a speed of about 129,000 miles per hour (57.8 kilometers per second) relative to the gas-giant planet. All of Juno's eight science instruments will be on and collecting data during the flyby.

"This will be our fourth science pass -- the fifth close flyby of Jupiter of the mission -- and we are excited to see what new discoveries Juno will reveal,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "Every time we get near Jupiter’s cloud tops, we learn new insights that help us understand this amazing giant planet."

Updates from previous flybys:

The Juno science team continues to analyze returns from previous flybys. Scientists have discovered that Jupiter's magnetic fields are more complicated than originally thought, and that the belts and zones that give the planet's cloud tops their distinctive look extend deep into the its interior. Observations of the energetic particles that create the incandescent auroras suggest a complicated current system involving charged material lofted from volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io.

Peer-reviewed papers with more in-depth science results from Juno's first flybys are expected to be published within the next few months.
 

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I was concerned about whether Juno would be able to complete all its intended orbits with a 53 day period. Bolton (at about 1 hr 9 min) said that all 32 orbits can still be performed.
 

Nicholas Kang

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6th Science Flyby occurs at Perijove just a few minutes ago.

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[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw-JLx_t-1s"]NASA Juno Live : Real time simulation - Follow as it passes of Jupiter's Great Red spot! - YouTube[/ame]

This time, Juno flies over Jupiter's Great Red Spot, shortly after perijove.

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4 antennas at Goldstone DSN in California are tracking Juno.

[ame="https://twitter.com/CanberraDSN/status/884535155276226566"]CanberraDSN on Twitter: "Our sister station in California #GoldstoneDSN is tracking @NASAJuno for its encounter w/ Jupiter's Great Red Spot. https://t.co/r97HjvmRWL https://t.co/cx3BPIxomZ"[/ame]

However,

[ame="https://twitter.com/CanberraDSN/status/884535520797184000"]CanberraDSN on Twitter: "@NASAJuno Data from this flyby will be received over the rest of this week. Mission team notes that GRS images may not be received until the weekend."[/ame]
 
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Nicholas Kang

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NASA's Juno Probes the Depths of Jupiter's Great Red Spot



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Data collected by NASA's Juno spacecraft during its first pass over Jupiter's Great Red Spot in July 2017 indicate that this iconic feature penetrates well below the clouds. Other revelations from the mission include that Jupiter has two previously uncharted radiation zones. The findings were announced Monday at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans.

"One of the most basic questions about Jupiter's Great Red Spot is: how deep are the roots?" said Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "Juno data indicate that the solar system's most famous storm is almost one-and-a-half Earths wide, and has roots that penetrate about 200 miles (300 kilometers) into the planet's atmosphere."

"Juno found that the Great Red Spot's roots go 50 to 100 times deeper than Earth's oceans and are warmer at the base than they are at the top," said Andy Ingersoll, professor of planetary science at Caltech and a Juno co-investigator. "Winds are associated with differences in temperature, and the warmth of the spot's base explains the ferocious winds we see at the top of the atmosphere."

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Juno also has detected a new radiation zone, just above the gas giant's atmosphere, near the equator. The zone includes energetic hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur ions moving at almost light speed.

The new zone was identified by the Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument (JEDI) investigation. The particles are believed to be derived from energetic neutral atoms (fast-moving ions with no electric charge) created in the gas around the Jupiter moons Io and Europa. The neutral atoms then become ions as their electrons are stripped away by interaction with the upper atmosphere of Jupiter.

Juno also found signatures of a high-energy heavy ion population within the inner edges of Jupiter's relativistic electron radiation belt -- a region dominated by electrons moving close to the speed of light. The signatures are observed during Juno's high-latitude encounters with the electron belt, in regions never explored by prior spacecraft. The origin and exact species of these particles is not yet understood. Juno's Stellar Reference Unit (SRU-1) star camera detects the signatures of this population as extremely high noise signatures in images collected by the mission's radiation monitoring investigation.

To date, Juno has completed eight science passes over Jupiter. Juno's ninth science pass will be on Dec. 16.
 

Nicholas Kang

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Jupiter's Great Red Spot Getting Taller as it Shrinks, NASA Team Finds


A new study suggests that it hasn’t all been downhill, though. The storm seems to have increased in area at least once along the way, and it’s growing taller as it gets smaller.

“Storms are dynamic, and that’s what we see with the Great Red Spot. It’s constantly changing in size and shape, and its winds shift, as well,” said Amy Simon, an expert in planetary atmospheres at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of the new paper, published in the Astronomical Journal.

The new findings indicate that the Great Red Spot recently started to drift westward faster than before. The storm always stays at the same latitude, held there by jet streams to the north and south, but it circles the globe in the opposite direction relative to the planet’s eastward rotation. Historically, it’s been assumed that this drift is more or less constant, but in recent observations, the team found the spot is zooming along much faster.

The study confirms that the storm has been decreasing in length overall since 1878 and is big enough to accommodate just over one Earth at this point. But the historical record indicates the area of the spot grew temporarily in the 1920s.

“There is evidence in the archived observations that the Great Red Spot has grown and shrunk over time,” said co-author Reta Beebe, an emeritus professor at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. “However, the storm is quite small now, and it’s been a long time since it last grew.”

Because the storm has been contracting, the researchers expected to find the already-powerful internal winds becoming even stronger, like an ice skater who spins faster as she pulls in her arms.

Instead of spinning faster, the storm appears to be forced to stretch up. It’s almost like clay being shaped on a potter’s wheel. As the wheel spins, an artist can transform a short, round lump into a tall, thin vase by pushing inward with his hands. The smaller he makes the base, the taller the vessel will grow.

In the case of the Great Red Spot, the change in height is small relative to the area that the storm covers, but it’s still noticeable.

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The Great Red Spot’s color has been deepening, too, becoming intensely orange since 2014. Researchers aren’t sure why that’s happening, but it’s possible that the chemicals which color the storm are being carried higher into the atmosphere as the spot stretches up. At higher altitudes, the chemicals would be subjected to more UV radiation and would take on a deeper color.

In some ways, the mystery of the Great Red Spot only seems to deepen as the iconic storm contracts. Researchers don’t know whether the spot will shrink a bit more and then stabilize, or break apart completely.

“If the trends we see in the Great Red Spot continue, the next five to 10 years could be very interesting from a dynamical point of view,” said Goddard co-author Rick Cosentino. “We could see rapid changes in the storm’s physical appearance and behavior, and maybe the red spot will end up being not so great after all.”

Reference:

Link to article in Astronomical Journal.
 

Notebook

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I think their is a lesser GRS, the Great Red Pimple?

N.
 

Nicholas Kang

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The latest JPL Von Karman lecture series talks about Juno and its findings about Jupiter so far!

Enjoy!

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Joupv6f-M"]Juno and The New Jupiter: What Have We Learned So Far? (live public talk) - YouTube[/ame]

Juno and the New Jupiter
Tuesday, May 17 at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET, 0200 UTC)

Juno is a solar-powered spacecraft which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 4, 2016. For a few hours every 53 days, Juno passes within a few thousand kilometers of the giant planet and collects a wealth of new information about Jupiter. Learn more about some of Juno’s current science results on the planet's origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere, and magnetosphere, and discuss the science expected from Juno in the coming years.

Speaker:
Dr. Steve Levin – Juno Project Scientist and lead co-investigator for Juno’s MicroWave Radiometer instrument

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory invites you to watch live about everything from Mars rovers to monitoring asteroids to cool cosmic discoveries.
 

Nicholas Kang

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Some updates:

Juno Solves 39-Year Old Mystery of Jupiter Lightning

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Ever since NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft flew past Jupiter in March, 1979, scientists have wondered about the origin of Jupiter’s lightning. That encounter confirmed the existence of Jovian lightning, which had been theorized for centuries. But when the venerable explorer hurtled by, the data showed that the lightning-associated radio signals didn’t match the details of the radio signals produced by lightning here at Earth.

In a new paper published in Nature today, scientists from NASA’s Juno mission describe the ways in which lightning on Jupiter is actually analogous to Earth’s lightning. Although, in some ways, the two types of lightning are polar opposites.

“In the data from our first eight flybys, Juno’s Microwave Radiometer Instrument (MWR) detected 377 lightning discharges,” said Brown. “They were recorded in the megahertz as well as gigahertz range, which is what you can find with terrestrial lightning emissions. We think the reason we are the only ones who can see it is because Juno is flying closer to the lighting than ever before, and we are searching at a radio frequency that passes easily through Jupiter’s ionosphere.”

While the revelation showed how Jupiter lightning is similar to Earth’s, the new paper also notes that where these lightning bolts flash on each planet is actually quite different.

“Jupiter lightning distribution is inside out relative to Earth,” said Brown. “There is a lot of activity near Jupiter’s poles but none near the equator. You can ask anybody who lives in the tropics -- this doesn’t hold true for our planet.”

Why do lightning bolts congregate near the equator on Earth and near the poles on Jupiter? Follow the heat.

Earth’s derives the vast majority of its heat externally from solar radiation, courtesy of our Sun. Because our equator bears the brunt of this sunshine, warm moist air rises (through convection) more freely there, which fuels towering thunderstorms that produce lightning.

Jupiter’s orbit is five times farther from the Sun than Earth’s orbit, which means that the giant planet receives 25 times less sunlight than Earth. But even though Jupiter’s atmosphere derives the majority of its heat from within the planet itself, this doesn’t render the Sun’s rays irrelevant. They do provide some warmth, heating up Jupiter’s equator more than the poles -- just as they heat up Earth. Scientists believe that this heating at Jupiter’s equator is just enough to create stability in the upper atmosphere, inhibiting the rise of warm air from within. The poles, which do not have this upper-level warmth and therefore no atmospheric stability, allow warm gases from Jupiter’s interior to rise, driving convection and therefore creating the ingredients for lightning.

“These findings could help to improve our understanding of the composition, circulation and energy flows on Jupiter,” said Brown. But another question looms, she said. “Even though we see lightning near both poles, why is it mostly recorded at Jupiter’s north pole?”

In a second Juno lightning paper published today in Nature Astronomy, Ivana Kolmašová of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, and colleagues, present the largest database of lightning-generated low-frequency radio emissions around Jupiter (whistlers) to date. The data set of more than 1,600 signals, collected by Juno’s Waves instrument, is almost 10 times the number recorded by Voyager 1. Juno detected peak rates of four lightning strikes per second (similar to the rates observed in thunderstorms on Earth) which is six times higher than the peak values detected by Voyager 1.

“These discoveries could only happen with Juno,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. “Our unique orbit allows our spacecraft to fly closer to Jupiter than any other spacecraft in history, so the signal strength of what the planet is radiating out is a thousand times stronger. Also, our microwave and plasma wave instruments are state-of-the-art, allowing us to pick out even weak lightning signals from the cacophony of radio emissions from Jupiter. “


NASA Re-plans Juno’s Jupiter Mission

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NASA has approved an update to Juno’s science operations until July 2021. This provides for an additional 41 months in orbit around Jupiter and will enable Juno to achieve its primary science objectives. Juno is in 53-day orbits rather than 14-day orbits as initially planned because of a concern about valves on the spacecraft’s fuel system. This longer orbit means that it will take more time to collect the needed science data.

An independent panel of experts confirmed in April that Juno is on track to achieve its science objectives and is already returning spectacular results. The Juno spacecraft and all instruments are healthy and operating nominally.

NASA has now funded Juno through FY 2022. The end of prime operations is now expected in July 2021, with data analysis and mission close-out activities continuing into 2022.

*Note: NASA's Juno spacecraft will make its 13th science flyby over Jupiter's mysterious cloud tops on July 16.
 

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smithsonianmag.com : Jupiter’s Magnetic Field Is Super Weird and Has Two South Poles

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Image: Nature​

There’s a band of red near the north pole where the force lines emerge, but there are two blue areas, one near the equator that researchers dubbed “The Great Blue Spot” where they re-enter as well as another blue area near the south pole, in essence giving it two south poles. A large part of the magnetic field also appears to be concentrated in the northern hemisphere instead of being evenly distributed between the poles.

So far, science’s best theory as to how magnetic fields form is called the dynamo effect. The idea is that an electrically conductive fluid—in the case of Earth that’s liquid iron—passes over a weak magnetic field generating an electrical current. That current creates a stronger magnetic field, which also produces a current from fluid motion. Those magnetic fields are large enough to surround the planet.

The shape of Jupiter’s magnetic field could clarify how this process works within the big planet. Jones at Nature reports that there are a couple of ideas about what lies beneath Jupiter. One hypothesis is that its core is a solid, compact chunk with five times the mass of Earth. The other idea is that it has a more dilute core made up of several stable layers of electrically conductive fluid. The magnetic field suggests that the latter may be the case, or that a once solid core dissolved and mixed with the inner parts of the planet. In those layers, the composition of the fluid may be in flux, altering the way the fluid flows inside the core which in turn alters the magnetic field.

There are other factors that could explain the weird field as well. “Just like we have water rain on Earth, Jupiter may have helium rain inside the planet, and this could alter the magnetic field,” lead author Moore tells Choi. “Jupiter’s winds might also reach down to depths where there’s sufficient electrical conductivity to affect the field.”
 

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Nasa's Juno mission to the gas giant Jupiter has reached its halfway mark and has revealed new views of cyclones at the poles.
As it orbits the planet every 53 days - Juno performs a science-gathering dive, speeding from pole to pole.
Its sensors take measurements of the composition of the planet, in an effort to decipher how the largest world in our Solar System formed.
Mapping the magnetic and gravity fields should also expose Jupiter's structure.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46547904

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/scien...r-jupiter-s-cloud-tops-with-nasa-s-juno-craft
 
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