It's Full of Stars

Preparations for Juno’s deep space maneuvers continues! This week, flight controllers commanded the spacecraft to initiate pre-heating of its propellant tanks. (Here’s labeled photo of the propulsion module during assembly and testing.)

Source: Juno Mission to Jupiter.

Villain in disguise: Jupiter’s role in impacts on Earth

Jupiter is often credited for shielding Earth from catastrophic asteroid and comet impacts. But new simulations of the influence of gas giant planets in solar systems casts doubt on Jupiter’s reputation as Earth’s protector.

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Jupiter’s Melting Heart Sheds Light on Mysterious Exoplanet

Scientists now have evidence that Jupiter’s core has been dissolving, and the implications stretch far outside of our solar system.

Jupiter might be having a change of heart. Literally.

New simulations suggest that Jupiter’s rocky core has been liquefying and mixing with the rest of the planet’s innards. With this new data, astronomers hope to better explain a recent puzzling discovery of a strange planet outside of our solar system.

“It’s a really important piece of the puzzle of trying to figure out what’s going on inside giant planets,” said Jonathan Fortney, a planetary scientist at the University of California Santa Cruz who was not affiliated with the research.

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This image of Earth (on the left) and the moon (on the right) was taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Aug. 26, 2011, when the spacecraft was about 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) away. It was taken by the spacecraft’s onboard camera, JunoCam. The solar-powered Juno spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Aug. 5 to begin a five-year journey to Jupiter.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech 

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Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Juno is now nearly 8 times farther away than the Moon (about 1.8 million miles away) and moving at a speed of around 12,400 mph relative to us.

Source: Juno Mission Facebook page.

Juno Spacecraft to Carry Three Figurines to Jupiter Orbit

NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft will carry the 1.5-inch likeness of Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno to Jupiter when the spacecraft launches this Friday, Aug. 5. The inclusion of the three mini-statues, or figurines, is part of a joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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CONFIRMED! JUPITER WAS SHOT WITH AN ASTEROID

On July 19, 2009, 15 years (to the day) after the famous comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 peppered Jupiter with huge chunks of ice, the gas giant was hit once again by a cosmic bullet.

Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley was the first to notice a scar in the planet’s atmosphere after the fact, leading us to believe that Jupiter had been hit by another comet.

However, in this cosmic game of whodunit, jumping to the conclusion that “another” comet was to blame for the 2009 impact turns out to have been a red herring. Just because we know a comet slammed into the planet in 1994, it doesn’t necessarily mean the 2009 event used the same weapon.

After some detective work, two papers recently published in the journal Icarus have concluded that Jupiter was actually shot by an asteroid, not a comet.

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Cassini Jupiter Portrait

This true color mosaic of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera onboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on December 29, 2000, during its closest approach to the giant planet at a distance of approximately 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles).

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Yesterday’s APOD: Dark Belt Reappearing on Jupiter

Credit: NASA’s JPL, U. Oxford, UC Berkeley, Gemini Obs. (North), USC Philippines.

Explanation: Why are planet-circling clouds disappearing and reappearing on Jupiter? Although the ultimate cause remains unknown, planetary meteorologists are beginning to better understand what is happening. Earlier this year, unexpectedly, Jupiter’s dark Southern Equatorial Belt (SEB) disappeared. The changes were first noted by amateurs dedicated to watching Jupiter full time. The South Equatorial Band has been seen to change colors before, although the change has never been recorded in such detail. Detailed professional observations revealed that high-flying light-colored ammonia-based clouds formed over the planet-circling dark belt. Now those light clouds are dissipating, again unveiling the lower dark clouds. Pictured above two weeks ago, far infrared images — depicted in false-color red — show a powerful storm system active above the returning dark belt. Continued observations of Jupiter’s current cloud opera, and our understanding of it, is sure to continue.

Two Planet Opposition
Credit & Copyright: Peter Knappert

Explanation: In late September, two planets were opposite the Sun in Earth’s sky, Jupiter and Uranus. Consequently closest to Earth, at a distance of only 33 light-minutes and 2.65 light-hours respectively, both were good targets for telescopic observers. Recorded on September 27, this well-planned composite of consecutive multiple exposures captured both gas giants in their remarkable celestial line-up accompanied by their brighter moons. The faint greenish disk of distant planet Uranus is near the upper left corner. Of the tilted planet’s 5 larger moons, two can be spotted just above and left of the planet’s disk. Both discovered by 18th century British astronomer Sir William Herschel and later named for characters in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon is farthest left, with Titania closer in. At the right side of the frame is ruling gas giant Jupiter, flanked along a line by all four of its Galilean satellites. Farthest from Jupiter is Callisto, with Europa and Io all left of the planet’s disk, while Ganymede stands alone at the right.

Animation of the 4:2:1 Laplace resonance between Ganymede, Europa, and Io