Scientists on NASA’s Juno mission have observed massive amounts of energy swirling over Jupiter’s polar regions that contribute to the giant planet’s powerful auroras – only not in ways the researchers expected.
Examining data collected by the ultraviolet spectrograph and energetic-particle detector instruments aboard the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft, a team led by Barry Mauk of the Johns Hopkins University Applied … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter, which has been in orbit around the gas giant since July 4, 2016, will remain in its current 53-day orbit for the remainder of the mission. This will allow Juno to accomplish its science goals, while avoiding the risk of a previously-planned engine firing that would have reduced the spacecraft’s orbital period to 14 days.… Read the rest of this article
In the video below, scientists Tony Darnell, Dr. Carol Christian and Scott Lewis discuss observations of Ganymede with the Hubble Space Telescope science team.
Nearly 500 million miles from the Sun lies a moon orbiting Jupiter that is slightly larger than the planet Mercury and may contain more water than all of Earth’s oceans. Temperatures are so cold, though, that … Read the rest of this article
Five years after departing Earth, and a month after slipping into orbit around Jupiter, NASA’s Juno spacecraft is nearing a turning point. On July 31 at 12:41 p.m. PDT (3:41 p.m. EDT), Juno will reach the farthest point in its orbit of Jupiter for the first time, known as “apojove,” 5 million miles (8.1 million kilometers) from the giant planet. … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter has broken the record to become humanity’s most distant solar-powered emissary. The milestone occurred at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST, 19:00 UTC) on Wednesday, Jan. 13, when Juno was about 493 million miles (793 million kilometers) from the sun.
The previous record-holder was the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, whose orbit peaked out at … Read the rest of this article
Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have produced new maps of Jupiter — the first in a series of annual portraits of the solar system’s outer planets.
Collecting these yearly images — essentially the planetary version of annual school picture days for children — will help current and future scientists see how these giant worlds change over time. The observations … Read the rest of this article
Jupiter’s moon Europa is brimming with water. Although it is thought to be mostly made up of rocky material, the moon is wrapped in a thick layer of water – some frozen to form an icy crust, some potentially pooled in shallow underground lakes or layers of slush, and vast quantities more lurking even deeper still in the form of … Read the rest of this article
Firing off a string of snapshots like a sports photographer at a NASCAR race, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a rare look at three of Jupiter’s largest moons parading across the banded face of the gas-giant planet: Europa, Callisto, and Io.
These so-called Galilean satellites (named after the 17th century scientist Galileo Galilei, who discovered them with a telescope) complete … Read the rest of this article
This Cassini image shows Jupiter from an unusual perspective. If you were to float just beneath the giant planet and look directly up, you would be greeted with this striking sight: red, bronze and white bands encircling a hazy south pole. The multicoloured concentric layers are broken in places by prominent weather systems such as Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot, … Read the rest of this article
Jupiter’s trademark Great Red Spot — a swirling anti-cyclonic storm larger than Earth — has shrunk to its smallest size ever measured.
According to Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, recent NASA Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm the Great Red Spot now is approximately 10,250 miles across. Astronomers have followed this downsizing since the 1930s.… Read the rest of this article
Recommended Astronomy DVDs, Blu-Rays and 4K UHD Blu-Rays
4-Billion-Year-Old Relic From the Early Solar System Is Headed This Way
Hubble Space Telescope Finds the Most Distant Star Ever Seen
The Lessons Learned From a Simulated Asteroid Strike Over Europe
Teachers: Apply Now to the ESA Teach With Space Online Conference
First Panoramic View of Mars at Perseverance Rover Landing Site
NASA’s Webb Telescope Will Show Us More Stars at Higher Resolution
Animations of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Landing
NASA Is Providing Spanish-Language Coverage for the Livestream of the December 14 Solar Eclipse
NASA Names Artemis Team of Astronauts Eligible for Early Moon Missions
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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