{"id":18939,"date":"2017-05-26T01:15:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T17:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-juno-orbiter-maps-jupiters-super-cyclones-and-monstrous-magnetism\/"},"modified":"2017-05-26T01:15:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T17:15:32","slug":"nasas-juno-orbiter-maps-jupiters-super-cyclones-and-monstrous-magnetism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-juno-orbiter-maps-jupiters-super-cyclones-and-monstrous-magnetism\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Juno orbiter maps Jupiter\u2019s super cyclones and monstrous magnetism"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_335029\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-335029\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-335029\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-5-630x808.jpg\" alt=\"Jupiter south pole, seen by Juno\" width=\"630\" height=\"808\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-5-630x808.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-5-768x986.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-5-982x1260.jpg 982w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-5.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-335029\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This image shows Jupiter\u2019s south pole, as seen by NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles. The oval features are cyclones, up to 600 miles in diameter. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ SwRI \/ MSSS \/ Betsy Asher Hall \/ Gervasio Robles)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Juno orbiter has been sending back stunning pictures of Jupiter for months, but now the mission\u2019s scientists are sharing their first peer-reviewed findings about the planet\u2019s previously unseen polar storms and powerful magnetic field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe results from Juno\u2019s initial close passes of Jupiter are understanding of this gas giant,\u201d the Juno science team, led by principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute, reports in the journal Science.<\/p>\n<p>Bolton and his colleagues laid out those&nbsp;results today in a set of papers published by&nbsp;Science and Geophysical Research Letters, and in a NASA teleconference.<\/p>\n<p>Jupiter has been previously studied at close range by NASA\u2019s Pioneer and Voyager probes in the 1970s, and by the Galileo orbiter between 1995 and 2003, but Juno is filling in many of the remaining gaps in scientists\u2019 picture of the planet.<\/p>\n<p>Because of its&nbsp;highly elliptical, pole-to-pole orbit, Juno can track&nbsp;the chaotic&nbsp;storms at Jupiter\u2019s poles that earlier observing campaigns have missed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey don\u2019t look anything like Jupiter as we know it. \u2026&nbsp;It almost looks like meteor craters, but of course it\u2019s all atmosphere, it\u2019s all gas,\u201d Bolton said in a Science podcast. He said the polar storms are unlike the more regular zone-and-belt patterns seen at the planet\u2019s equator. What\u2019s more, the north pole\u2019s storm patterns are unlike the south pole\u2019s storms.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Jupiter\u2019s skies are peppered with electron streams, ammonia plumes, and massive storms\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/raeZ6d9cAcE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Some of the oval-shaped storms near the north pole spread wider than 850 miles. One roughly circular high-altitude cloud spans&nbsp;more than 4,000 miles. \u201cIt\u2019s a towering, almost tornado-like structure,\u201d Bolton said. \u201cIt\u2019s a cyclone of some kind, but it\u2019s three-dimensional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The science team says the chaotic scene is \u201cfundamentally different\u201d from the views of Saturn\u2019s polar regions that have been captured by the Cassini orbiter.<\/p>\n<p>The polar storms appear to be whipped up by processes similar to the dynamics that drive Earth\u2019s weather, but it\u2019s not yet clear whether they\u2019re as stable as Jupiter\u2019s better-known equatorial storms, such as the Great Red Spot.<\/p>\n<p>Some of Juno\u2019s pictures show white flecks floating above the main cloud deck. \u201cIt\u2019s like it\u2019s snowing on Jupiter and we\u2019re seeing how it works,\u201d Bolton said. But this snow probably&nbsp;contains frozen ammonia, he said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_335018\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-335018\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-335018\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-flecks-630x401.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-flecks-630x401.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-flecks-768x489.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-flecks.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-335018\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This image from the Juno probe reveals bright high clouds that are about 16 miles across and in some areas appear to form \u201csquall lines.\u201d On Jupiter, clouds this high are almost certainly composed of water and\/or ammonia ice. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ SwRI \/ Gerald Eichst\u00e4dt \/ Se\u00e1n Doran)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bolton said Juno will continue to track how storms develop over the course of a primary mission that\u2019s due to last more than a year. \u201cWe really need the rest of our mission in order to figure out&nbsp;how Jupiter works,\u201d he told journalists during today\u2019s teleconference.<\/p>\n<p>The length of Juno\u2019s mission is expected to be much shorter than Galileo\u2019s eight-year run because the probe comes much closer to Jupiter\u2019s cloud tops \u2013 as close as 3,000 miles \u2013 and repeatedly passes through its powerful radiation belts.<\/p>\n<p>Juno\u2019s measurements showed that Jupiter\u2019s magnetic field reached a maximum strength of&nbsp;7.766 gauss \u2013&nbsp;which is more than 10 times as strong as Earth\u2019s magnetic field, and twice as strong as what scientists predicted based on computer modeling.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Connerney, the lead scientist for the mission\u2019s magnetic field investigation at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, said that Jupiter\u2019s magnetic field is stronger in some places and weaker in others. That suggests that the field may be generated by dynamo action close to the surface, and not by action at its core, he said.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BWOSGI1WrNA<\/p>\n<p>Scientists already knew that Jupiter\u2019s magnetic field sparked intense auroras, based on data from Galileo, but Juno\u2019s ultraviolet and infrared imaging capabilities are giving them a much better idea just how intense the auroras can get.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the auroral emissions appear to be&nbsp;caused by magnetic interactions involving Jupiter\u2019s moons, including volcanic Io and ice-covered Europa and Ganymede.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s just one example of how Jupiter\u2019s auroras are different from Earth\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the Earth, the aurorae are largely dictated by the sun,\u201d Bolton said. \u201cIt\u2019s the solar wind interaction with Earth\u2019s magnetosphere, or&nbsp;magnetic field, that creates the aurora. Jupiter\u2019s is fundamentally different. \u2026 There\u2019s a part of it that\u2019s tied to the solar wind, but a large part of it is tied to Jupiter\u2019s rotation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Connerney said the patterns of particle emissions observed by Juno suggest that electrons are being pulled into Jupiter\u2019s magnetic field from below rather than from above, which is the case for Earth\u2019s aurora.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MTIoUr-uolk<\/p>\n<p>Juno is also starting to get a handle on Jupiter\u2019s internal structure, thanks to the magnetic field measurements as well as readings about its gravity field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt looks like there\u2019s a lot of strange deep motions that possibly are going on inside of Jupiter,\u201d Bolton said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the initial observations suggest Jupiter has a \u201clarge, fuzzy core\u201d beneath a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen \u2013 which is something scientists didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n<p>During one close flyby of Jupiter, Juno\u2019s stellar navigation camera captured a view of the constellation Orion with the giant planet\u2019s faint ring of dust in the foreground. \u201cThis is the first image of Jupiter\u2019s ring that has ever been collected from the inside of it looking out,\u201d Heidi Becker of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_335012\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-335012\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-335012\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-ring-630x632.jpg\" alt=\"Jupiter's main ring\" width=\"630\" height=\"632\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-ring-630x632.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-ring-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-ring-768x771.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-ring-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/170525-jupiter-ring.jpg 794w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-335012\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image captured by the Juno probe\u2019s Stellar Reference Unit shows the faint line of Jupiter\u2019s main ring, 40,000 miles away, with the constellation Orion in the background. The lines of the constellation have been added to indicate the star Betelgeuse as well as the three stars of Orion\u2019s belt. (NASA\/ JPL-Caltech \/ SwRI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Juno will continue making close flybys of Jupiter every 53 days. The next encounter, on July 11, will feature&nbsp;the probe\u2019s first flight directly over the&nbsp;Great Red Spot.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019ll be many more scientific papers to come, but Bolton said the initial results have already confirmed a big-picture observation about planets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat Juno\u2019s results are showing us is that our ideas of giant planets may be a little bit oversimplified,\u201d he&nbsp;said. \u201cThey\u2019re more complex than we thought. The motions that are going on inside are more complicated.&nbsp;It\u2019s possible that they formed differently than our simple ideas. And so it really is changing the most fundamental way that we think how solar systems are formed, and how giant planets work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This image shows Jupiter\u2019s south pole, as seen by NASA\u2019s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles. The oval features are cyclones, up to 600 miles in diameter. (NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ SwRI \/ MSSS \/ Betsy Asher Hall \/ Gervasio Robles) NASA\u2019s Juno orbiter has been sending back stunning pictures of Jupiter for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5098,1606,4709],"class_list":["post-18939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-juno-mission","tag-jupiter","tag-planets"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}