Key Highlights:
- The Juno space probe has recently presented a 3D view of Jupiter’s atmospheric features
- The anticyclone crimson vortex called the Great Red Spot has revealed that the concentration of atmospheric mass within the storm potentially could be detectable by instruments
- The mission is to measure the planet’s composition, gravitational field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere
Space Probe Mission
NASA’s space probe–Juno, orbiting the planet Jupiter has recently led to the discovery of the planet’s atmospheric features by presenting a 3D view of the planet. Juno is NASA’s space probe that has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016. To date, the satellite spacecraft has had 37 passes of the planet during which a specialized suite of instruments has peered below its turbulent cloud deck. The new findings provide a fuller picture of how the planet’s distinctive and colorful atmospheric features offer clues about the unseen processes below its clouds. Images from the Juno satellite highlight the inner workings of the belts and zones of clouds encircling Jupiter along with its polar cyclones and the Great Red Spot.
Atmospheric Features
Juno satellite has a microwave radiometer (MWR) that allows mission scientists to peer beneath the planet’s cloud tops and probe the structure of its numerous vortex storms. The iconic anticyclone crimson vortex known as the Great Red Spot is wider than the Earth. It has recently been discovered that the cyclones are warmer on top having lower atmospheric densities, whereas the bottom ones are colder with higher densities.
On the contrary, anticyclones, which rotate in the opposite direction, are colder at the top but warmer at the bottom. The MWR data of the Juno satellite shows that the belts and zones undergo a transition around 40 miles beneath Jupiter’s water clouds. The Juno satellite mission is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program. It is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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