Category Archives: Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al

Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Space Music, Space Science

Videos: Update on Juno mission to Jupiter + Apple documentary

The Juno probe is set to go into orbit around Jupiter on Monday (see earlier posting here): NASA’s Juno to Kick into Planned Autopilot for July 4 Jupiter Burn – NASA.

NASA TV will webcast coverage of the event, briefings, etc: NASA Announces Coverage, Media Activities for Juno Arrival at Jupiter – NASA.

NASA releases a new video describing the Juno mission:

The probe has NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Enters Jupiter’s Magnetic Field – NASA

Apple is selling eight songs  written and performed by different artists inspired by Juno and space exploration:

Also today, NASA announced a collaboration with Apple that will serve to enhance the agency’s efforts to inform and excite the public about dramatic missions of exploration like Juno. “Destination: Juno” is a synergy between two seemingly disparate worlds: popular music and interplanetary exploration. The works resulting from this collaboration showcase exploratory sounds from artists who have been inspired by Juno and other NASA missions, including Brad Paisley, Corinne Bailey Rae, GZA, Jim James featuring Lydia Tyrell, QUIÑ, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Weezer and Zoé.

Apple has captured moments in this journey with a behind-the-scenes documentary spearheaded by the Juno mission’s principal investigator, Scott Bolton, and scored by Academy Award winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The content is available on various Apple platforms.  

See also

Here is the Apple short film:

More Juno items:

Plots of the orbits of all the visitors to Jupiter from Earth:

Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Space Science, Space Systems

Juno nears Jupiter for July 4th orbit insertion + Jupiter images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope

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NASA’s Juno spacecraft, which launched on August 5, 2011, will arrive at Jupiter on July 4th. It will then fire its engine to go into a polar orbit around the solar system’s largest planet:  NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Closing in on Jupiter – NASA.

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Juno took this picture of Jupiter’s Moons on June 21:

pia20701-portal
NASA’s Juno spacecraft obtained this color view on June 21, 2016, at a distance of 6.8 million miles (10.9 million kilometers) from Jupiter. As Juno makes its initial approach, the giant planet’s four largest moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto — are visible, and the alternating light and dark bands of the planet’s clouds are just beginning to come into view. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS [Larger image]
Here is a video overview of the project:

This video is about the spacecraft technology:

The spacecraft will spend two years on scientific studies including measurements of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, gravity, atmospheric composition, and more.

Juno is the first probe to the outer planets to rely solely on solar power rather than using a radioisotope thermoelectric generator.

The ESO (European Southern Observatory) released images of Jupiter taken with the Very Large Telescope in Chile: Jupiter Awaits Arrival of Juno – ESO 

In preparation for the imminent arrival of NASA’s Juno spacecraft in July 2016, astronomers used ESO’s Very Large Telescope to obtain spectacular new infrared images of Jupiter using the VISIR instrument. They are part of a campaign to create high-resolution maps of the giant planet to inform the work to be undertaken by Juno over the following months, helping astronomers to better understand the gas giant. This false-colour image was created by selecting and combining the best images obtained from many short VISIR exposures at a wavelength of 5 micrometres.
In preparation for the imminent arrival of NASA’s Juno spacecraft in July 2016, astronomers used ESO’s Very Large Telescope to obtain spectacular new infrared images of Jupiter using the VISIR instrument. They are part of a campaign to create high-resolution maps of the giant planet to inform the work to be undertaken by Juno over the following months, helping astronomers to better understand the gas giant. This false-colour image was created by selecting and combining the best images obtained from many short VISIR exposures at a wavelength of 5 micrometres.

 

False colour images generated from VLT observations in February and March 2016, showing two different faces of Jupiter. The bluer areas are cold and cloud-free, the orangey areas are warm and cloudy, more colourless bright regions are warm and cloud-free, and dark regions are cold and cloudy (such as the Great Red Spot and the prominent ovals). The wave pattern over the North Equatorial Band shows up in orange. This view was created from VLT/VISIR infrared images from February 2016 (left) and March 2016 (right). The orange images were obtained at 10.7 micrometres wavelength and highlight the different temperatures and presence of ammonia. The blue images at 8.6 micrometres highlight variations in cloud opacity.
False colour images generated from VLT observations in February and March 2016, showing two different faces of Jupiter. The bluer areas are cold and cloud-free, the orangey areas are warm and cloudy, more colourless bright regions are warm and cloud-free, and dark regions are cold and cloudy (such as the Great Red Spot and the prominent ovals). The wave pattern over the North Equatorial Band shows up in orange. This view was created from VLT/VISIR infrared images from February 2016 (left) and March 2016 (right). The orange images were obtained at 10.7 micrometres wavelength and highlight the different temperatures and presence of ammonia. The blue images at 8.6 micrometres highlight variations in cloud opacity.
Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Multiple media

Saturn: “Dark Moons, Dark Rings”

Great image from the Cassini probe of two moons above Saturn’s rings:

Dark Moons, Dark Rings

When taking images in directions opposite from the sun, most objects appear dark. Surprisingly, however, some of Saturn’s rings get brighter.

TwoMoonsAboveTheRings-PIA18360_hires

Parts of Saturn’s main rings appear dark in backlit views, particularly the dense B ring (as can been seen in PIA14934). However, some rings are comparatively tenuous and made up of dust particles that tend to scatter light in roughly the original direction it was traveling. This is called “forward scattering.” Because of forward scattering, rings like the F ring, which encircles the outer edge of the main rings, appear to glow brightly at this large viewing angle.

Two moons hover above the rings from this perspective — Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across), at left, and Janus (111 miles or 179 kilometers across), at right.

This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 0.5 degrees below the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Dec. 21, 2015.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 136 degrees. Janus’ brightness was enhanced by a factor of two to improve its visibility in this image.

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and www.nasa.gov/cassini. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at ciclops.org.

Europa, Titan, & other deep space sites, Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Space Science

Video: Artist Michael Carroll – “On the shores of Titan’s Farthest Sea”

In this SETI Institute seminar,  author/artist Michael Carroll explores

the bizarre methane-filled seas and soaring dunes of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Recent advances in our understanding of this planet-sized moon provide enough information for authors to paint a realistic picture of this truly alien world.

Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Pluto and beyond, Space Science

Video: Exploring the outer solar system – in vivid color

Dr. Michele Bannister of the University of Victoria gave a recent SETI Institute seminar on Exploring the outer Solar System: now in vivid colour –

The outer reaches of our Solar System are home to hundreds of thousands of small icy worlds. Their present orbits are a sculpted signature of the early migrations of the giant planets, particularly Neptune. Yet the faintness and highly eccentric orbits of most of these worlds mean only a tiny fraction of them have yet been discovered.

With the Outer Solar System Origins Survey on CFHT, we are discovering up to five hundred new outer Solar System objects, with exquisitely well-determined orbital parameters. Our complementary Large Program on Gemini North is observing the brightest of our discoveries in the optical and infrared with unprecedented precision, providing information on the ices, silicates and organic compounds on the surfaces of these small worlds.

This colourful map of the structure of the outer Solar System is providing new constraints on Neptune’s migration.