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jupiter aurorae

We've all seen images of Jupiter enough to option it out of a planetary lineup — it'south the big one with the wavy clouds and a big red spot. NASA's Juno probe reached the planet several weeks agone, and has merely sent back its first close-upwardly photos. They reveal a planet that looks very dissimilar from the one we've seen so far. It'south the aforementioned Jupiter, of course, but seen from completely new angles.

Juno was launched in the summer of 2011 and took about five years to reach Jupiter. The harsh radiation emanating from the gas giant could be harmful to the probe's systems over long periods, so Juno is in a highly elliptical polar orbit. This allows the spacecraft to spend as little time as possible in the planet's heavy radiations belts. The polar orbit also lets Juno spy on different areas of the planet on each orbit as information technology rotates.

Juno's eccentric orbit means that it simply just made its first low laissez passer over Jupiter after reaching the planet on July 4th. That'southward why there'southward been relatively little news on the mission in recent weeks. In the image higher up, Juno caught a glimpse of Jupiter's southern aurorae in infrared using the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) camera. Scientists have never seen them from this angle, and certainly non so close up.

Beneath, you lot tin see a visual spectrum epitome of Jupiter'southward north polar region with storms and cloud formations unlike anything else in the solar system. The north pole appears to lack the striated belts of clouds seen at lower latitudes. Instead, there's a sea of giant cyclones. One thing scientists were interested to see Jupiter does not have is a hexagonal deject formation at the north pole. That's a very prominent feature on Saturn. Juno did, however, option up radio emissions from Jupiter'southward northern polar aurorae, which scientists hope can help usa understand what makes them so massive.

pia21030_main_2_north_polar_full

The photo above was captured from an altitude of 120,000 miles, merely Juno got as shut every bit 2,500 miles during this get-go laissez passer. It sent dorsum 6MB of data over the course of its six-hour transit. Later this year, Juno will use its engines to reduce the eccentricity of its orbit, bringing the orbital period to just 14 days. It will as well go as low as 1,200 miles to a higher place the cloud tops. Its 37 planned orbits should exist finished in another 18 months, at which time NASA will let the probe drop into the Jovian atmosphere.