Mission Elapsed Time:
369 (1.01 yrs.) Days 08 Hours 50 Minutes
Time of Arrival:
1426 ( 3.91 yrs.) Days 01 Hours 02 Minutes
JPL issued a news note with that most dreaded of press release titles: "Mission Status Report," which some dread because it's usually a euphemism for "something bad has happened to one of our spacecraft." But this time it contains nothing but good news. It briefly notes that the Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft has successfully completed some of the first of the twelve trajectory correction maneuvers it'll perform between the launch last year and Jupiter arrival in 2016. Its next maneuver will take place in August of this year (this month). NASA's Juno spacecraft is outbound from the Sun, heading way beyond Mars' orbit before heading sunward again ending in a Earth flyby in August 2013 that will send it on to a July 2016 Jupiter arrival.
Juno’s Present Position and Course 8/8/12
Juno's science objectives are to:
1. Determine how much water is in Jupiter's atmosphere, to help identify which planet formation theory is correct .
2. Look deep into Jupiter's atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties
3. Map Jupiter's magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet's deep structure
4. Explore and study Jupiter's magnetosphere near the planet's poles, especially the auroras, providing new insights about how the planet's enormous magnetic force field affects its atmosphere.
A simulated view of Jupiter's South Pole illustrates Juno's unique perspective which will allow Juno's camera to image Jupiter's clouds from a vantage point never seen before.
Juno's investigations focus on four themes:
1. Origin – Jupiter's solid core and abundance of heavy metals in the atmosphere make it an ideal model to understand the origin of giant planets. Juno will measure global abundances of oxygen and nitrogen by mapping the gravitational field and using microwave observations of water and ammonia.
2. Interior – Juno will map Jupiter's gravitation and magnetic fields, revealing the interior structure, the origin of the magnetic field, the mass of its core, the nature of deep convection, and the abundance of water.
3. Atmosphere – Jupiter has the most massive atmosphere of all the planets. By mapping variations in atmospheric composition, temperature, cloud opacity and dynamics to depths greater than 100 bars at all latitudes, Juno will determine the global structure and dynamics of Jupiter’s atmosphere below the cloud tops for the first time.
4. Magnetosphere–Jupiter’s powerful magnetospheric dynamics create the brightest aurora in our solar system. Juno will measure the distribution of the charged particles, their associated fields, and the concurrent UV emissions of the planet’s polar magnetosphere, greatly improving our understanding of this remarkable phenomena.
Auroras at Jupiter's North and South Poles
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