A Highly Charged Atmosphere Beauty Runs Deep Powerful bolts of lightning light up Jupiter’s Data collected by the Juno spacecraft during its first pass clouds. In some ways, the lightning is much 5. over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot in July 2017 indicate that this like what we see on Earth. In other ways, it’s iconic feature penetrates well below the clouds. The solar very different. For example, most lightning on system’s most famous storm appears to have roots that highlights from Earth strikes near the equator; on Jupiter, it’s penetrate about 200 miles into the planet’s atmosphere. mostly around the poles. Juno discovered 7 the atmosphere is full of lighting, much more Spotting the Spot active then previously thought. Measuring 10,159 miles wide years at Jupiter 6. (as of April 3, 2017), Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is 1.3 times as wide as Earth. First spotted in 1830, the storm has NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrived at possibly existed for more than 350 years, the King of Planets in July 2016 although lately, it appears to be shrinking. Arrival at a Colossus and has been revealing Jupiter’s In July 2017, Juno passed directly over the After an odyssey of almost five years secrets ever since. Here are 10 spot, and JunoCam images revealed a tangle 1. and 1.7 billion miles, NASA’s Juno highlights from the Juno mission, of dark, veinous clouds woven through a spacecraft entered Jupiter orbit on led by SwRI’s Dr. Scott Bolton. massive crimson oval, and showed that the July 4, 2016. Juno, with its suite of giant storm appears to float between layers Powerful Auroras, Powerful Mysteries nine science instruments, is the first in Jupiter’s deep atmosphere. Juno has observed massive amounts of mission to make repeated excursions energy swirling over Jupiter’s polar scraping the cloud tops, deep inside regions that contribute to the giant the planet’s powerful radiation belts. planet’s powerful auroras — only not in ways the researchers expected. Using the SwRI-led ultraviolet spectrograph, 8. Juno discovered the aurora at the very A Whole New Jupiter top of Jupiter’s poles appears to turn off It didn’t take long for Juno to turn theories about how Jupiter at night. Using data from the SwRI-led works inside out. Among the early findings: Jupiter’s poles are plasma instrument and APL-led covered in giant cyclones nearly the size of Earth, swirling in energetic particle detectors, scientists 2. dense, interactive clusters. Jupiter’s iconic belts and zones also observed physical processes that drive revealed surprises. The belts and zones were discovered to Earth’s aurora, but at Jupiter, these Heat from Within penetrate to a depth of 3000 km, while a newly discovered band 9. processes are not the source of the most Juno scientists discovered densely packed cyclones and anticyclones near the equator persists far beneath the clouds, similar to Earth’s intense aurora, as they are at Earth. that dominate the planet’s polar regions, and the first detailed indica- tropical belt. Juno provided the first look into a tions of an extraterrestrial dynamo, the engine creating Jupiter’s 4. giant planet’s deep atmosphere magnetic field. Data collected by the spacecraft’s Jovian InfraRed Science, Meet Art and discovered variability that Auroral Mapper captures light emerging from deep inside Jupiter, challenges current theories. probing the weather layer 30 to 45 miles below Jupiter’s cloud tops. Juno carries JunoCam, a public outreach instrument. 10. In a remarkable first for a Extra Innings . In June, NASA approved an update to extend 3 deep space mission, the The Ultimate Classroom Juno team enlists the Juno’s science operations until July 2021. This The Goldstone Apple Valley general public not only in provides for an additional 41 months in orbit Radio Telescope (GAVRT) around Jupiter. Juno is in 53-day orbits instead planning what images project lets students do real JunoCam takes, but also in of the originally conceived orbits of 14 days. science with a large radio processing and enhancing The larger orbit will allow Juno to explore telescope in collaboration with the visual data. The results Jupiter’s giant magnetosphere and monitor Juno scientists. GAVRT data include some of the most atmospheric storms for years, providing include Jupiter observations stunning images in the information on how the giant planet works. relevant to the mission. history of space exploration. The spacecraft and all its instruments are healthy and operating normally. IMAGES COURTESY: NASA/JPL/SWRI/MSS CODY CODY NASA/JPL/SWRI/MSS COURTESY: IMAGES HALL/ ASHER AUSTIN/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS/BETSY EICHSTÄDT/ ROBLES/GERALD GERVASIO DORAN/ASI/INAF/JIRAM/JUNOCAM SEÁN 20 SUMMER 2018.