"Juno Peers Deep into Jupiter's Abyss to Reveal Weird Winds"Breakthrough measurements of Jupiter's hidden interior could revolutionize our understand of giant plants By Amina Khan Published on March 7th, 2018 Written by Amina Khan, this article is about Juno, the space probe orbiting Jupiter. Juno is just one of nine spacecrafts orbiting the giant planet and is the first one to get this far. Before scientists recently discovered information using Juno, they originally had only two theories about the atmosphere and core of Jupiter. Scientists have recently found evidence that disproves their beliefs about the planet. Jupiter, being a giant gas planet, was said to have a very different gravitational pull from Earth, however, recent findings suggest that it's not that different after all. When Juno moved closer to Jupiter, unique winds became visible at the northern and southern poles that suggested a similar core to Earth. Previously, scientists assumed that the winds went a deep 10,000 kilometers from the cloud tops or that they were very short and only layered the atmosphere but now they believe that it only goes about 3,000 feet. This both answers questions and raises a bunch more. They think that because Jupiter is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium it could allow easier study of the sun, which is also made of these elements, and could possibly hold the key to figuring out why certain planets have a rocky core like Earth. By using Juno, scientists can measure these new wind patterns, the asymmetrical gravitational polls, and the electrons and ions that make up the winds and auras. A striking feature that you see when you look at Jupiter is it's ring patterns, something that's been around likely since the planet was created and that scientists have been studying for almost just as long. The first observation of these wind-caused patterns was 400 years ago by Galileo but nobody could decipher what they could mean for other planets and Jupiter's core. Galileo also used the discovery of Jupiter's moon and gravitational pull to prove the Copernican view of Earth and our solar system. Jupiter's rings are made up of winds blowing in opposite directions and some are lighter than others because of their chemical compositions. The lighter clouds are made up of frozen ammonia while the darker clouds are made up of a completely different composition but the clouds never mix because they're blowing so fast. I personally think this is very amazing. I'm curious about whether Jupiter is closer to the sun, because they're both giants and made up of the same essential elements, or Earth because of this new discovery. I also find it very interesting that Jupiter, if only 80 times bigger, would be a star and how it has 8 cyclones that form an octagon and avoid merging into each other. All these discoveries can be attributed to Juno or similar spacecrafts, hopefully Juno can continue to move closer to Jupiter to make more interesting discoveries in the future.
1 Comment
Fernando Ramirez
3/9/2018 10:23:11 pm
Yes! I am so glad someone did this, while not conventionally related to the U.S. (or even to this world!) it is a very significant. The question as to why the 8 cyclones do not merge is such an interesting one and questions are what make science, science. It reminds me of some of the questions people in earlier times had about how things work or something a child would wonder and it just adds that much more joy and curiosity (wait a minute, curiosity?... different planet explorer) to it. The JIRAM instrument has captured some great composite images of the cyclone in infrared which can then be translated into different temperatures of the clouds. Great job, definitely something to follow.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHi, I'm Elena Seitzinger and this is my blog! Welcome! Archives
June 2018
Categories |