Hot hot hot, above the Great Red Spot
One of the largest remaining questions in understanding the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, the outmost layer of the atmosphere, is: ‘Why is this region so very hot?’. Out where Jupiter orbits the Sun, the sunlight is very faint, and cannot provide enough energy to produce the temperatures that we measure.We call this the ‘energy crisis’. […]
The Birth of Giants
Dr. Leigh Fletcher discusses how Juno could revolutionise our understanding of the origins of Jupiter via gravitational mapping of its internal structure. The presence of Jupiter has had a profound influence on the architecture of our solar system, shaping the conditions that have led to the stable, habitable environment that exist here on Earth. […]
When it Rains…
Water, water, everywhere. Dr. Leigh Fletcher appeared on this month’s episode of BBC Sky at Night to discuss Juno’s goals at Jupiter, and describes the importance of Jupiter’s water in this new post. If our ideas about the formation of giant planets stand up to the observational tests of the Juno […]
Leicester’s Juno Magnetospheric and Auroral Science
While much of Stan Cowley’s early scientific career concerned theoretical and data analysis studies of the Earth’s outer plasma environment, involvement in work on the gas giant planets began with his participation in the analysis of Ulysses energetic particle and magnetic field data obtained during the 1992 Jupiter flyby. Subsequently this research strand extended into […]
Leicester Atmospheric Science and Juno
In addition to the suite of remote sensing instruments carried aboard the Junospacecraft, the mission coincides with an unprecedented international campaign to scrutinise Jupiter’s dynamic, evolving atmosphere from Earth-based facilities. Juno carries a microwave radiometer capable of sounding below Jupiter’s top-most cloud decks to hundreds of bars of pressure to understand the deep processes underpinning […]
Observing Jupiter’s aurora from the top of a Volcano
As part of the ground based support for the Juno mission, I visited the Mauna Kea Observatories, Hawaii, in February through to the beginning of March this year. I was observing Jupiter’s Northern lights while Juno was speeding its way towards Jupiter. During this time, Juno’s instruments had been switch on and it was busy […]
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