Jupiter: Science and Photographic Results from NASA’s Juno Mission

[Innocent Warrior]

A Whole New Jupiter: First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission (May 25, 2017)

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/17-051.jpg?itok=02Ec2e2p
This image shows Jupiter’s south pole, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers). The oval features are cyclones, up to 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter. Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas in daylight, enhanced color, and stereographic projection.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles

Early science results from NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter portray the largest planet in our solar system as a complex, gigantic, turbulent world, with Earth-sized polar cyclones, plunging storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the gas giant, and a mammoth, lumpy magnetic field that may indicate it was generated closer to the planet’s surface than previously thought.

“We are excited to share these early discoveries, which help us better understand what makes Jupiter so fascinating,” said Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It was a long trip to get to Jupiter, but these first results already demonstrate it was well worth the journey.”

Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, entering Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016. The findings from the first data-collection pass, which flew within about 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) of Jupiter's swirling cloud tops on Aug. 27, are being published this week in two papers in the journal Science, as well as 44 papers in Geophysical Research Letters.

“We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “But now that we are here we are finding that Jupiter can throw the heat, as well as knuckleballs and sliders. There is so much going on here that we didn’t expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter.”

Among the findings that challenge assumptions are those provided by Juno’s imager, JunoCam. The images show both of Jupiter's poles are covered in Earth-sized swirling storms that are densely clustered and rubbing together.

“We're puzzled as to how they could be formed, how stable the configuration is, and why Jupiter’s north pole doesn't look like the south pole,” said Bolton. “We're questioning whether this is a dynamic system, and are we seeing just one stage, and over the next year, we're going to watch it disappear, or is this a stable configuration and these storms are circulating around one another?”

Another surprise comes from Juno’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR), which samples the thermal microwave radiation from Jupiter’s atmosphere, from the top of the ammonia clouds to deep within its atmosphere. The MWR data indicates that Jupiter’s iconic belts and zones are mysterious, with the belt near the equator penetrating all the way down, while the belts and zones at other latitudes seem to evolve to other structures. The data suggest the ammonia is quite variable and continues to increase as far down as we can see with MWR, which is a few hundred miles or kilometers.

See source (https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/a-whole-new-jupiter-first-science-results-from-nasa-s-juno-mission) to read full article.


https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/thumbnails/image/13-candy-1-new-fix.jpg?itok=8aFGUY3G
Sequence of Juno Spacecraft's Approach to Jupiter

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/thumbnails/image/pia21338.png?itok=4RnrrP8-
When Jovian Light and Dark Collide

Source of photographs and more information here (https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/sequence-of-juno-spacecrafts-close-approach-to-jupiter) and here (https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia21338/when-jovian-light-and-dark-collide).

[Innocent Warrior]

More Jupiter Weirdness: Giant Planet May Have Huge, 'Fuzzy' Core (May 26, 2017)

Jupiter's deep interior appears to be as strange and otherworldly as the gas giant's storm-studded exterior, new observations by NASA's Juno spacecraft suggest.
Scientists have generally thought that Jupiter either harbors a relatively compact core 1 to 10 times as massive as Earth or no core at all, said Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, who's based at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

But neither of these hypotheses fits with the gravity data collected so far by Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016.

"There seems to be a fuzzy core, and it may be much larger than anybody had anticipated," Bolton said Thursday (May 25) during a NASA press conference announcing the first detailed science results from Juno's mission.

This core may even be partially dissolved, Bolton said, adding that Juno's initial observations are also consistent with "some deep motions or zonal winds" occurring far beneath the enormous planet's cloud tops.


https://img.purch.com/w/640/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA2Ni8zNjIvaTAyL2p1cGl0ZXItaW50ZXJpb3Itc3RydWN0dXJlLmpw Zz8xNDk1NzQ5MzY5
Diagram of Jupiter’s possible interior structure. Observations by NASA’s Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft are already helping to flesh out this picture; Juno’s gravity data suggest, for example, that Jupiter may have a surprisingly large, partially dissolved core, mission team members have said.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

Identifying and characterizing Jupiter's core is a key goal of Juno's $1.1 billion mission, which seeks to better understand how the gas giant formed and evolved. Learning about Jupiter's history should yield insights about planet formation and solar-system evolution in general, mission team members have said.

Juno uses its eight science instruments to study Jupiter's structure, composition and gravitational and magnetic fields. The probe collects most of its information during close flybys over the gas giant's poles, which occur once every 53.5 days. (Juno orbits Jupiter on a highly elliptical path.)


https://img.purch.com/w/640/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA2Ni8zNjMvaTAyL2p1cGl0ZXItc291dGgtcG9sZS5qcGVnPzE0OTU3 NDk0ODM=
This image of Jupiter's south pole was created by a citizen scientist using data from NASA's Juno spacecraft.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gabriel Fiset

See source (http://www.space.com/37005-jupiter-fuzzy-core-nasa-juno.html) to read full article (including links).

[Innocent Warrior]

Excerpt from article, New Views of Jupiter Offer Up Marvel and Mystery (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/our-view-jupiter-just-got-lot-different-180963473/) (May 26, 2017)

"Now, the first scientific data from Juno’s rendezvous with Jupiter are finally being presented to the public—and the results might make you scratch your head.

First thing’s first: Juno got awesome views of both of Jupiter’s poles, and they look nothing alike. In a paper in the journal Science, researchers analyze data that Juno snagged of the area beneath the planet’s cloudy surface. It did so using microwave sounding, which is also used by weather satellites to tell what’s happening on the ground during storms. The technique let scientists map out what’s happening inside the planet’s intense polar storms, which Juno’s cameras also captured in all of their swirly, mesmerizing glory.

Despite expectations that those storms would contain a mixture of gases across the whole planet, they didn’t. A huge, ammonia-rich plume seems to be billowing up from somewhere inside Jupiter. Researchers think it bears a resemblance to Hadley cells, which fuel the trade winds back on Earth.


https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/e4/38/e438680e-478e-482e-9159-108fb24d6902/jupitergif.gif
Instruments aboard the Juno spacecraft captured these infrared images that show Jupiter's banded thermal emissions.
(J.E.P. Connerney et al., Science 2017)

There was another surprise on Jupiter: A magnetic field that’s even stronger than researchers expected. In another paper in Science, they describe a lumpy magnetic field that seems to come from an even larger inner core than thought. In a paper devoted entirely to the core in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers hypothesize that it’s a whopping 7 to 25 times the mass of Earth’s core and could take up more of the planet than expected.

“Intense” aurorae were also observed on the planet, but they don’t seem to work like Earth’s. On our planet, the sun shoots particles toward the planet. They strike Earth’s magnetosphere and travel toward the polar regions. Some of these particles are diverted in and slam into atmospheric gasses, generating light.

Not so on Jupiter—they seem to be traveling outward from the planet instead of downward. That suggests a truly weird magnetic field. As The New York Times’ Kenneth Chang explains, that could be accounted for by the makeup of Jupiter’s core—liquid hydrogen instead of molten iron."

[Atlas]

Scientists have generally thought that Jupiter either harbors a relatively compact core 1 to 10 times as massive as Earth or no core at all, said Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, who's based at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

Juno Spacecraft Earth Flyby - Dr. Scott Bolton (2013):
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[uzn]

A Photocollage of Jupiter approaching

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_UaOhvLUYA

The most important finding is that the Magnetic Field of Jupiter is way stronger than that of Earth. As Rachel already mentioned several Times stronger. In Numbers that is Earths Magnetic Field comes at Earths Core to 25 Gauss, Jupiters Magnetic Field has 7800 Gauss and is shaped way more irregular than Earths.


The strong Magnetic Field can and will probably be a big Problem for the Juno Spacecraft. See an earlier NASA Report of Juno shutting down and having to reboot the onboard Computer:

Juno Spacecraft in Safe Mode for Latest Jupiter Flyby
Scientists Intrigued by Data from First Flyby - Mission Status Report
NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered safe mode Tuesday, Oct. 18 at about 10:47 p.m. PDT (Oct. 19 at 1:47 a.m. EDT). Early indications are a software performance monitor induced a reboot of the spacecraft’s onboard computer. The spacecraft acted as expected during the transition into safe mode, restarted successfully and is healthy.  High-rate data has been restored, and the spacecraft is conducting flight software diagnostics. All instruments are off, and the planned science data collection for today’s close flyby of Jupiter (perijove 2), did not occur.

“At the time safe mode was entered, the spacecraft was more than 13 hours from its closest approach to Jupiter,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “We were still quite a ways from the planet’s more intense radiation belts and magnetic fields. The spacecraft is healthy and we are working our standard recovery procedure.”

The spacecraft is designed to enter safe mode if its onboard computer perceives conditions are not as expected. In this case, the safe mode turned off instruments and a few non-critical spacecraft components, and it confirmed the spacecraft was pointed toward the sun to ensure the solar arrays received power.

Mission managers are continuing to study an unrelated issue with the performance of a pair of valves that are part of the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Last week the decision was made to postpone a burn of the spacecraft’s main engine that would have reduced Juno’s orbital period from 53.4 to 14 days.

The next close flyby is scheduled on Dec. 11, with all science instruments on.
......

Source: (and more Text):
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/juno-spacecraft-in-safe-mode-for-latest-jupiter-flyby

[kirolak]

Did Van Gogh have a hand in the designs? :)

[Innocent Warrior]

Did Van Gogh have a hand in the designs? :)

:bigsmile: I showed my BF the pictures today and he said, "Looks like Van Gogh designed Jupiter".

[amor]

Looks like a good candidate for the location of hell.

[uzn]

Another Pass-by Collage of the Juno Pictures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kQbTBt418o

[uzn]

https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/aEBzGKK_700b_v1.jpg

[Star Tsar]

New data gathered...


Harvard-Smithsonian Center For Astrophysics

Yamila Miguel | Jupiter's Internal Structure & Juno's First Results

Streamed 25th January & Published 7th March 2018

Yamila shares the very first results from the data garnered from NASA's Juno mission & Explains the gas giant's internal structure as this is the key to understanding our solar systems formation.

3L0isygjr4o

[Star Tsar]

News from Juno mission


Nemesis Maturity

Jupiter Has An Extra Magnetic Pole Dubbed "The Great Blue Spot"

Published 6th September 2018

https://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci.com/files/styles/655_1x_/public/images/2018/09/pia21390.jpeg?itok=OqJwdsdc&fc=50,50

When NASA's Juno spacecraft reached Jupiter in 2016, planetary scientists were eager to learn more about the giant planet's magnetic field. Juno would fly over both of Jupiter's poles, skimming just 4000 km above the cloudtops for measurements at point-blank range. Today in the journal Nature, a team of researchers led by Kimberly Moore of Harvard University announced new results from Juno--and they are weird. Among the findings: Jupiter has an extra magnetic pole.

"We find that Jupiter's magnetic field is different from all other known planetary magnetic fields," the researchers wrote in the introduction to their paper.

The best way to appreciate the strangeness of Jupiter's magnetic field is by comparison to Earth. Our planet has two well-defined magnetic poles--one in each hemisphere. This is normal. Jupiter's southern hemisphere looks normal, too. It has a single magnetic pole located near the planet's spin axis.

Jupiter's northern hemisphere, however, is something else. The north magnetic pole is smeared into a swirl, which some writers have likened to a "ponytail." And there is a second south pole located near the equator. The researchers have dubbed this extra pole "The Great Blue Spot" because it appears blue in their false-color images of magnetic polarity.

In their Nature article, the scientists consider the possibility that we are catching Jupiter in the middle of a magnetic reversal--an unsettled situation with temporary poles popping up in strange places. However, they favor the idea that Jupiter's inner magnetic dynamo is simply unlike that of other planets. Deep within Jupiter, they posit, liquid metallic hydrogen mixes with partially dissolved rock and ice to create strange electrical currents, giving rise to an equally strange magnetic field.

More clues could be in the offing as Juno continues to orbit Jupiter until 2021. Changes to Jupiter's magnetic structure, for instance, might reveal that a reversal is underway or, conversely, that the extra pole is stable.

Read all about it here: https://www.popsci.com/jupiter-magnetic-field-wacky & http://spaceweather.com/

I7ZKL6vL594