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Scientists Discover A Mechanism Behind Jupiter’s Mysterious Winds
Published 2nd December 2019
When the astronomer Galileo Galilei first set his sights on Jupiter through his telescope in 1610, he noticed two strange things: First, there four small moons orbiting the planet, and second, planet had these strange alternating bands of color. Now, over 400 years later, we’re looking at these stripes on the Solar System’s largest planet in a way we never have before.
Fast forward to the year 2011: NASA has launched the Juno spacecraft (who’s name has a strange origin story) towards Jupiter, and after a lengthy four-year trek, it finally began its orbit of the gaseous planet. The Juno mission’s overarching goal is to understand how Jupiter formed, which could tell us about the enigmatic origins of our solar system. Equipped with a magnetometer, an energetic particle detector, a UV spectrograph, and a host of other analytical devices, Juno is transmitting a boatload (or spaceshipload if you will) of data back to earth. With that data, scientists aim to unlock the secrets of this massive, swirling ball of gas.
Until Juno, scientists weren’t sure what lies below its impressionist painting-like surface. We’re still not even sure if it has a solid core. In 2016, using radio signals that mapped the distribution of mass in Jupiter’s atmosphere, Juno found that below a depth of 3,000 km (4% of Jupiter’s diameter), the winds just stop.
Now, scientists have come up with a new reason why.
Read all about it here: http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.co...sm-behind.html
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