Juno: Mission to Jupiter
Unlocking Jupiter's Secrets
Juno will improve our understanding of the solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter.
Specifically, Juno will…
- Determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which helps determine which planet formation theory is correct (or if new theories are needed)
- Look deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties
- Map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structureExplore and study Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles, especially the auroras – Jupiter’s northern and southern lights – providing new insights about how the planet’s enormous magnetic force field affects its atmosphere.
THE GIANT PLANET STORY IS THE STORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Artist concept of Juno.
Image credit: NASA/JPL
Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of
Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to
the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system
during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter
can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary
systems being discovered around other stars.
With its suite of
science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid
planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount
of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's
auroras.
Juno will let us take a giant step forward in our
understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played
in putting together the rest of the solar system.
JUPITER’S ORIGINS AND INTERIOR
Artist concept of a young star system similar to our own.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/
T. Pyle (SSC)Theories about solar system formation all begin with
the collapse of a giant cloud of gas and dust, or nebula, most of which
formed the infant sun. Like the sun, Jupiter is mostly hydrogen and
helium, so it must have formed early, capturing most of the material
left after our star came to be. How this happened, however, is unclear.
Did a massive planetary core form first and gravitationally capture all
that gas, or did an unstable region collapse inside the nebula,
triggering the planet’s formation? Differences between these scenarios
are profound.
Even more importantly, the composition and role of icy planetesimals, or
small
proto-planets, in planetary formation hangs in the balance – and with
them, the origin of Earth and other terrestrial planets. Icy
planetesimals likely were the carriers of materials like water and
carbon compounds that are the fundamental building blocks of life.
Unlike
Earth, Jupiter's giant mass allowed it to hold onto its original
composition, providing us with a way of tracing our solar system's
history. Juno will measure the amount of water and ammonia in Jupiter’s
atmosphere and determine if the planet actually has a solid core,
directly resolving the origin of this giant planet and thereby the solar
system. By mapping Jupiter’s gravitational and magnetic fields, Juno
will reveal the planet’s interior structure and measure the mass of the
core.
ATMOSPHERE
How deep Jupiter's colorful zones, belts, and other features penetrate is one of the most outstanding fundamental questions about the giant planet. Juno will determine the global structure and motions of the planet’s atmosphere below the cloud tops for the first time, mapping variations in the atmosphere’s composition, temperature, clouds and patterns of movement down to unprecedented depths.
MAGNETOSPHERE
Deep in Jupiter's atmosphere, under great pressure, hydrogen gas is
squeezed into a fluid known as metallic hydrogen. At these great depths,
the
hydrogen acts like an electrically conducting metal which is believed
to be the source of the planet's intense magnetic field. This powerful
magnetic environment creates the brightest auroras in our solar system,
as charged particles precipitate down into the planet’s atmosphere. Juno
will directly sample the charged particles and magnetic fields near
Jupiter’s poles for the first time, while simultaneously observing the
auroras in ultraviolet light produced by the extraordinary amounts of
energy crashing into the polar regions. These investigations will
greatly improve our understanding of this remarkable phenomenon, and
also of similar magnetic objects, like young stars with their own
planetary systems.
JUNO’S MYTHICAL CONNECTION
In Greek and Roman mythology, Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief. It was Jupiter's wife, the goddess Juno, who was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter’s true nature. The Juno spacecraft will also look beneath the clouds to see what the planet is up to, not seeking signs of misbehavior, but helping us to understand the planet’s structure and history.
Juno's interplanetary trajectory.
Image credit: NASA/JPLMISSION TIMELINE
- LAUNCH - August 5, 2011
- EARTH FLYBY GRAVITY ASSIST - October 2013
- JUPITER ARRIVAL - July 2016
- SPACECRAFT WILL ORBIT JUPITER FOR ABOUT ONE YEAR (33 ORBITS)
- END OF MISSION (DEORBIT INTO JUPITER) - October 2017
The Juno mission is the second spacecraft designed under NASA's
New Frontiers Program. The first was the Pluto New Horizons mission,
launched in January 2006 and scheduled to reach Pluto's moon Charon in
2015. The program provides opportunities to carry out several
medium-class missions identified as top priority objectives in the
Decadal Solar System Exploration Survey, conducted by the Space Studies
Board of the National Research Council in Washington.
JPL manages
the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of
Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of
the New Frontiers Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built
the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility
of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena.
url: http://missionjuno.swri.edu/