Eerie Jupiter – from Juno with love.

Steph P. Bianchini November 20, 2016 6 Comments

That NASA’s Juno spacecraft was going to deliver amazing science we already knew. And when, in June 24, Juno crossed the boundary of Jupiter’s staggering magnetic field, its instruments recorded the bow shock (=the supersonic solar wind that is heated and slowed by Jupiter’s magnetosphere) for about two hours on June 24, 2016.

Here it is:

After the magnetosphere, Juno went to observe Jupiter’s mighty auroras, recording some other eerie sounds together with great imagery. It was something unique, NASA explained. “Juno spacecraft has sent back the first-ever images of Jupiter’s north pole, taken during the spacecraft’s first flyby of the planet with its instruments switched on. The images show storm systems and weather activity unlike anything previously seen on any of our solar system’s gas-giant planets. […] 

“This was the first glimpse of Jupiter’s north pole, and it looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before. “It’s bluer in colour up there than other parts of the planet, and there are a lot of storms. There is no sign of the latitudinal bands or zone and belts that we are used to — this image is hardly recognisable as Jupiter. We’re seeing signs that the clouds have shadows, possibly indicating that the clouds are at a higher altitude than other features.” Read

Read here the whole story.

After successfully performing the reboot and scheduled maintenance operations, Juno went out of safe mode on October, 25, ready to keep on its science mission. Stay tuned.