Researchers anticipating new data on Jupiter when Juno spacecraft enters orbit

Galileo, the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, met the same fate after a 14-year mission. “Our objective is to get at a close range of a giant planet”.

As a result, Jupiter itself still remains much of a mystery, although it is the 800-pound gorilla that dominates the solar system. One question, in particular, that has vexed scientists is whether Jupiter hides a solid core of elements heavier than those making up its bulk – hydrogen and helium – or whether those two gases simply become more and more compressed all the way to the center. “We think the material we’re going to be sampling… is essentially primordial, so that tells us something about the beginning of the solar system”, explained Richard Thorne of the University of California, Los Angeles, one of the scientists working on the mission.

Juno also stands for the Nasa backronym, JUpiter Near-polar Orbiter. If the orbital insertion isn’t successful, Juno will orbit the sun instead. DSN’s worldwide communications complexes support interplanetary, robotic spacecraft missions as they conduct radio, radar and astronomy observations of the solar system and beyond. Its tug on the Juno spacecraft intensifies or lessens by tiny, but measurable, amounts as it travels around the planet.

After removing the effects of many influences interfering with the gravity measurements – a “terrible job”, according to Hubbard – a three-dimensional dataset will emerge, representing Jupiter’s gravitational field.

Like Galileo before it, Juno meets its demise in 2018 when it deliberately dives into Jupiter’s atmosphere and disintegrates, a necessary sacrifice to prevent any chance of accidentally crashing into the planet’s potentially habitable moons. “Others are related to its interior dynamics – for example, how much material is moved around in Jupiter’s interior through convection, as opposed to if it were a quiescent planet”. Five years after its launch from Earth, Juno is scheduled to go into orbit around the gas giant on Monday, July 4, 2016. It is probably the largest hurricane in the solar system, so big that it can easily swallow up Earth, but little is known about where it came from or its energy source.

“So, when this mission was being proposed to Nasa we were the go-to people to be involved in the planning of the mission and also when the spacecraft actually gets to Jupiter we are going to be involved in the data analysis and the interpretation of the data that the spacecraft sends back”. “Jupiter orbit insertion was a big step and the most challenging remaining in our mission plan, but there are others that have to occur before we can give the science team the mission they are looking for”, added Nybakken. The UVS will look at the spectrum of light being emitted, something Weidner said is similar to what we see on Earth.

Lego pieces representing Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno, are now orbiting Jupiter aboard the probe.

Juno had to turn on its engines to slow down precisely 2,609 miles away from Jupiter, and it needed a 35-minute burn to achieve the correct speed to enter the planet’s orbit.

A NASA spacecraft has begun firing its rocket motor in preparation for its arrival at Jupiter.

Hubbard can’t wait for the probe to begin streaming data to Earth that he has awaited for years. Without Jupiter cleaning out the early solar system, the Earth would be pock-marked with meteor collisions.

Jupiter also is one of the most radioactive planets in the solar system, Napier said.