sign in sign up
<<
Home , Exploration of Jupiter, Galileo (spacecraft), Great Red Spot, Io (moon), Jupiter, Jupiter (spacecraft)

50th Lunar and Conference 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2132) 1352.pdf

EXPLORATION OF . F. Bagenal, Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder CO 80302 ([email protected])

Introduction: Jupiter reigns supreme amongst plan- zones, hinting at convective motions but images were ets in our : the largest, the most massive, the insufficient to allow tracking of features. fastest rotating, the strongest , the greatest • emissions from Jupiter’s nightside com- number of , and its is the most pared to the dayside, confirming that the radiates likely place to find . Moreover, we 1.9 times the heat received from the with the poles now know of thousands of Jupiter-type that being close to equatorial . other . Our understanding of the various compo- • Accurately tracking of the Doppler shift of the nents of the Jupiter system has increased immensely ’s radio signal refined the gravitational field with recent spacecraft missions. But the knowledge that of Jupiter, constraining models of the deep interior. we are studying just the local example of what may be • Similarly, the of the Galilean satellites ubiquitous throughout the has changed our per- were corrected by up to 10%, establishing a decline in spective and studies of the jovian system have ramifica- their with distance from Jupiter. tions that extend well beyond our solar system. • Magnetic field measurements confirmed the strong The purpose of this talk is to document our scientific magnetic field of Jupiter, putting tighter constraints on understanding of the jovian system after six spacecraft the higher order components. flybys, ’s 34 equatorial [1] and ’s first • of by revealed a substan- 17 polar orbits of Jupiter [2], to review what we have tial , indicative of a significant . learned about the planet, satellites and • The magnetosphere of Jupiter was highly variable and to list outstanding questions. in size, extending up to 100 jovian radii. Pioneers 10 & 11: As the era of • Detectors confirmed very high fluxes of energetic blossomed in the late 1960s, engineers expanded their charged particles and that are absorbed by the satellites horizon past to Jupiter and beyond. But before in- as they drift inwards towards Jupiter. vesting in sending expensive and delicate equipment • Bursts of energetic particles are ejected from the two potential hazards needed to be evaluated. No space- jovian system and penetrate inwards as far as . craft had ventured across the belt and while few Voyagers 1 & 2: Plotting the locations of the outer were concerned about the very improbable collision planets for the next 20 years showed that in the 1980s with the large (but sparse) known , the distri- the planets would all be in the same quadrant of the solar bution of and pieces of collisional debris was com- system, providing a special to fly past all of pletely unknown. The second potential hazard to a the planets with a single spacecraft [4]. With a gravity- spacecraft passing close to Jupiter was its belt. boost at each planet, a spacecraft would get to Three years before Van Allen’s 1958 historic discovery in 12 years instead of the minimum-energy flight time of the radiation belts around the Earth, powerful radio of 30 years. Thus, the planetary syzygy of the 1980s emissions from Jupiter were detected [3]. By the late gave birth to the Grand Tour. 1960s it was clear that Jupiter’s radio emissions were Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched in late summer generated by energetic trapped in a strong 1977 and passed closest to Jupiter on March 5 and July magnetic field. Damage to spacecraft electronics pass- 9, 1979. The spectacular pictures made headline news ing through the terrestrial radiation belts raised concerns around the world. Movies of Jupiter's atmosphere about what could survive the higher fluxes at Jupiter showed turbulent eddies, dramatic shears, and suggested by the radio emissions. swirling around the Great Spot. Images of Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973, the Galilean revealed each to be a totally bizarre, passed uneventfully through the and flew different world - craters on , grooves on Gany- past Jupiter a year apart on November 27, 1972 and De- mede, volcanic plumes on Io and mysterious lines cember 10, 1973, the first of several spacecraft to use across Europa. The preliminary scientific results were: Jupiter’s gravity to get a boost to the outer solar system. • Clouds of difference sizes move together due to Pioneer 10 passed 130,000 km above Jupiter’s bulk rather than wave motions, in a systematic tops measuring record fluxes of energetic and elec- zonal pattern, similar for both flybys. trons, but with only minor electronic hiccups. So, Pio- • Clouds in the exhibit anticyclonic neer 11 was targeted even closer, 42,000 km above the motion with a period of about six days. clouds. Below we summarize the significant results: • The eddies or "spots" interact with each other, oc- • Images of Jupiter showed detailed cloud structure, casionally merging. particularly at boundaries between dark belts and • Powerful bolts penetrate the cloud tops.

50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2132) 1352.pdf

• The upper atmosphere and ionosphere are hot. Cassini: The Cassini spacecraft passed Jupiter on • observations indicate the presence of a its dusk side, just skimming inside the flank of the mag- high altitude absorbing haze in the polar regions. netosphere. The closest approach occurred on Decem- • Strong ultraviolet and visible circle Jupiter's ber 30, 2000 but instruments took data magnetic poles. for six months, while the Galileo spacecraft was inside • observed eight active volcanoes on Io, Jupiter's magnetosphere and the Hubble Space Tele- with plumes extending 250 km above the surface. Voy- scope observed the ultraviolet emissions from Jupiter's ager 2 found six were still active six months later. aurora. The main scientific results were: • Spectral signatures indicate the presence of SO2 as • Similar to Voyager, the zonal wind profile with the frost on the surface and gas in Io’s atmosphere. east-west alternations were seen to extend to the poles. • Remarkably smooth surface of Europa, with few • Observations of the rings at difference phases and impact craters, intersecting linear cracks, indicates a ge- wavelengths constrain the size distribution of particles. ologically-young surface. • Spectral imaging of UV emissions from the Io • Distinct cratered and grooved on Gany- torus quantified spatial and temporal variations. mede suggest the -rich was once under tension. • Imaging of energetic neutral atoms showed ener- • Callisto’s heavily cratered ancient crust. getic charged particles charge exchange with clouds of • First images of reveal an elongated body neutral atoms in the vicinity of Io and Europa. with an irregular shape and reddish surface. Juno: The Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around • A faint, narrow ring of material was detected. Jupiter since July 2016, completing 17 pole-to-pole • A million-amp electrical current flows along mag- passes to date. It is the first spacecraft to view the polar netic field lines linking Jupiter and Io. atmosphere and sample the particles and of the • Strong ultraviolet emissions and in situ plasma auroral regions. Juno is mapping out the gravity and measurements reveal a dense torus of electrons, magnetic fields as well as measuring the microwave and ions around Io’s orbit. emission from the hot interior below the clouds. The : To explore the high , the main scientific results are: ESA-NASA Ulysses mission used a Jupiter gravity as- • The magnetic field shows detailed structure with sist to get the spacecraft's trajectory out of the stronger, more irregular fields in the north [5]. plane. The shape of the magnetosphere and structure of • Gravity measurements reveal the heavy elements magnetic field measured on the pass through the high in the core are mixed with the liquid metallic , latitude dusk region suggests that the influence of the spreading to 40% of Jupiter’s radius [6]. solar wind penetrates much deeper into Jupiter's giant • Microwave measurements show atmospheric con- magnetosphere than previously expected. vection extends down to ~3000 km [7]. Galileo: The Galileo spacecraft was launched from • Systems of polar (5 south, 8 north) persist Atlantis on October 18th, 1989. After an for over 2.5 years of mission to date [8]. extensive tour of the inner solar system, it reached Jupi- • Intense aurora are excited by powerful beams of ter on December 7, 1995. Six months prior to arrival at charged particles that are driven by stochastic processes Jupiter the probe was detached and allowed to free-fall rather than steady electric potentials at Earth [9]. into the planet. The 331 kg probe entered at 6.5° N lati- A major success of Juno is the camera (JunoCam tude, sending data up to the orbiter for 60 minutes, by [10]), included as an outreach instrument, which pro- which time it had reached a depth of 22 bars, 150 km duces spectacular images that are processed by citizen below the clouds. Galileo’s main accomplishments are: scientists and artists. • The descent probe found the relative abundances Future missions and JUICE will ex- of primary elements were different from the Sun. plore the jovian system, focusing on . • The atmosphere creates ice particles of References: [1] Bagenal F., Dowling T. E. and material from lower depths, but only in fresh clouds. McKinnon W. B. (2004) Jupiter: Planet, Satellites, • Lightning activity was definitively tied to large- Magnetosphere, CUP [2] Bolton S. J. et al. (2017) Sci- scale moist of clouds. ence 356, 821-825 [3] Burke B.F. and Franklin K.L. • Io's volcanic activity ~100 times greater than Earth. (1955) JGR, 60, 213-217 [4] Flandro G. (1966) Astro- • Plasma interactions with Io’s atmosphere generates naut. Acta 12 [5] Connerney J.E.P. et al. (2018) JGR, 45 currents that couple to Jupiter's atmosphere. [6] Wahl, S.M. et al. (2017) GRL, 44, 4649–4659 [7] • is the first known to possess an Kaspi, Y. et al. (2018) , 25793 [8] Adriani, A. et internally-generated magnetic field. al. (2017) Nature, 25491 [9] Mauk, B.H. et al. (2017) • Magnetic field perturbations show Europa, Gany- Nature, 549, 23648 [10] Hansen, C.J. et al. (2017) Space mede and Callisto have hidden conductive oceans. Sci. Rev., 213, 475-506