Juno spacecraft prepares for shut come upon with icy moon Europa
A NASA probe will swoop to around 350 kilometres above Europa’s floor on 29 September, returning in-depth images and details on its magnetic fields and icy crust
House
8 September 2022
NASA’s Juno spacecraft is about to give scientists their closest appear at Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa in additional than 22 yrs.
The mission will swoop to all over 350 kilometres previously mentioned Europa’s floor on 29 September, returning specific photos as perfectly as data about the moon’s magnetic discipline and its icy crust.
The previous time a spacecraft acquired in the same way shut to Europa was in January 2000 when NASA’s Galileo orbiter swung by at a length of 351 kilometres.
“We’ve previously completed all the preparations. We’re actually psyched. Everything is on goal,” suggests Scott Bolton, the Juno mission’s principal investigator.
“Our flyby is fairly distinctive. The portion of Europa that we’re likely to be able to see doesn’t have significantly superior-resolution information on it from Galileo, so this’ll be the very first time we’ve been able to see that [region] at pretty superior resolution,” he states.
All of Juno’s scientific instruments will be capturing details all through the quick move, suggests Bolton. Its primary digital camera, JunoCam, will deliver a handful of large-industry views even though its navigation digital camera, regarded as the stellar reference device, will be tasked with getting a single, extremely higher-resolution photograph of a tiny patch of Europa’s nightside, lit only by the scattered light from Jupiter’s cloud tops.
Scientists also hope to use the flyby to glean insights into Europa’s ice shell working with Juno’s microwave radiometer. Bolton likens the instrument to a radar device, “except it is passive, so we’re just looking at emission coming out [from Europa] as opposed to sending a signal in and observing it bounce off”, he suggests. The radiometer’s info could give researchers clues about the depth of the shell and may expose if there are fractured regions or places of liquid in the frozen crust.
The crew will even look for symptoms of the drinking water vapour plumes that scientific tests have proposed emanate from Europa, even though Bolton stresses that these options “would have to be going off at the proper time in a way that we can see them”.
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A NASA probe will swoop to around 350 kilometres above Europa’s floor on 29 September, returning in-depth images and details on its magnetic fields and icy crust
House
8 September 2022
NASA’s Juno spacecraft is about to give scientists their closest appear at Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa in additional than 22 yrs.
The mission will swoop to all over 350 kilometres previously mentioned Europa’s floor on 29 September, returning specific photos as perfectly as data about the moon’s magnetic discipline and its icy crust.
The previous time a spacecraft acquired in the same way shut to Europa was in January 2000 when NASA’s Galileo orbiter swung by at a length of 351 kilometres.
“We’ve previously completed all the preparations. We’re actually psyched. Everything is on goal,” suggests Scott Bolton, the Juno mission’s principal investigator.
“Our flyby is fairly distinctive. The portion of Europa that we’re likely to be able to see doesn’t have significantly superior-resolution information on it from Galileo, so this’ll be the very first time we’ve been able to see that [region] at pretty superior resolution,” he states.
All of Juno’s scientific instruments will be capturing details all through the quick move, suggests Bolton. Its primary digital camera, JunoCam, will deliver a handful of large-industry views even though its navigation digital camera, regarded as the stellar reference device, will be tasked with getting a single, extremely higher-resolution photograph of a tiny patch of Europa’s nightside, lit only by the scattered light from Jupiter’s cloud tops.
Scientists also hope to use the flyby to glean insights into Europa’s ice shell working with Juno’s microwave radiometer. Bolton likens the instrument to a radar device, “except it is passive, so we’re just looking at emission coming out [from Europa] as opposed to sending a signal in and observing it bounce off”, he suggests. The radiometer’s info could give researchers clues about the depth of the shell and may expose if there are fractured regions or places of liquid in the frozen crust.
The crew will even look for symptoms of the drinking water vapour plumes that scientific tests have proposed emanate from Europa, even though Bolton stresses that these options “would have to be going off at the proper time in a way that we can see them”.
Additional on these topics: