29 May, 2017
An worldwide team of scientists unveiled the first official results of a scientific mission Juno (Jupiter Polar Orbiter). The American aerospace agency is publishing two papers this week about the discoveries in the journal Science and a further 44 papers in Geophysical Research Letters.
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 solar-powered Juno spacecraft launched in 2011, and made its first tour around Jupiter on Aug 27 past year.
The Juno spacecraft was launched in August 2011 and reached Jupiter's orbit in July 2016.
This stunning picture taken by the probe reveals both the breathtaking beauty of Jupiter's landscape but also the nearly unimaginable size of the gas giant as each of these cyclones combined are around the same size as our entire planet. But it's even more intense than researchers thought and irregularly lumpy.
"We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves", said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator.
The objectives of the Juno mission is the study of clouds and polar auroras of Jupiter. The incredible data will help scientists understand the planet better than ever before.
This is Jupiter's south pole, and like most of the rest of the planet, it's absolutely covered in massive storms, electricity, and swirling masses of clouds that stretch for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
"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.
"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?" Juno carries a Microwave Radiometer, which samples the thermal microwave radiation from Jupiter's atmosphere.
The probe has also detected an overwhelming abundance of ammonia deep down in the atmosphere, and a surprisingly strong magnetic field in places - roughly 10 times greater than Earth's. As well, current measurements indicate that Jupiter's magnetic field is much stronger than expected. The data collected by MAG also indicates that the magnetic field exceeds previous values at 7.766 Gauss, which is ten times stronger than the strongest magnetic field on Earth. "Every flyby we execute gets us closer to determining where and how Jupiter's dynamo works", Connerney concluded. Once every 53 days, Juno swoops closer to the planet and travels from the north to the south pole, offering a close-up glimpse of the planet. And, like our planet, Jupiter has northern and southern lights, but as of now, its auroras look to be quite different from our own.
"On our next flyby on 11 July, we will fly directly over one of the most iconic features in the entire solar system - one that every school kid knows - Jupiter's Great Red Spot".
