Ars Technica reports, “Jupiter’s colossal storms generate lightning flashes at least 100 times more powerful than those on Earth, according to scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The findings were published March 20 in the journal AGU Advances. Researchers used data recorded by Juno in 2021 and 2022, after NASA granted an extension to the spacecraft’s operations upon completing a five-year science campaign at Jupiter. Juno remains in good health, but NASA officials have not said if they will approve another extension for the mission.”
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Tag: Jupiter
JUICE Mission to Take 8 Years to Reach Jupiter
SPACE reports the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), which has an April 13 launch date, will take eight years to travel to its destination. The travel time is longer than other missions to the planet, but needed to allow a number of gravity assist maneuvers and because the spacecraft will need to not just reach Jupiter but to be moving slowly enough to enter its orbit.
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NASA’s Lucy to Visit Eight Asteroids
The AP reports that NASA “is set to launch a series of spacecraft to visit and even bash some of the solar system’s most enticing space rocks.” The Lucy probe is to launch this weekend “on a 12-year cruise to swarms of asteroids out near Jupiter – unexplored time capsules from the dawn of the solar system.” A month later, the Dart impactor will strike a double-asteroid’s moonlet in an attempt to change its orbit.
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NASA’s Lucy Mission to Observe Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroid Swarms
CNN reports that the Lucy mission, the first NASA mission to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid swarms, “has passed all of its prelaunch tests and is set to leave Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at around 5:30 a.m. ET on October 16.” These asteroids “are remnants from the early days of our solar system” and “the mission will help researchers effectively peer back in time to learn how the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.” Tom Statler, Lucy project scientist at NASA Headquarters, said: “With Lucy, we’re going to eight never-before-seen asteroids in 12 years with a single spacecraft. This is a fantastic opportunity for discovery as we probe into our solar system’s distant past.” CNN reports that “the Lucy spacecraft is more than 46 feet (14 meters) from tip to tip, largely due to its giant solar panels – each about the width of a school bus – designed to keep up a power supply to the spacecraft’s instruments.”
Full Story (CNN)