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Jupiter

All articles tagged with #jupiter

Shadow Play Across the Solar System: Planets and the Hidden Power of Eclipses
space10 days ago

Shadow Play Across the Solar System: Planets and the Hidden Power of Eclipses

Solar eclipses occur when a moon passes between a planet and the Sun, casting a shadow that researchers use to study motion, atmospheres, and gravity. The article notes Io's frequent shadow on Jupiter as an example, recounts Earth's historic use of eclipses and the 1919 test of general relativity, highlights the 1973 Concorde flight that extended totality to 74 minutes for coronal observations, and describes Phobos transits on Mars used to measure orbital decay—demonstrating the same geometric rules govern eclipses across the solar system.

via Futura, le média qui explore le monde|
#io#jupiter#orbital-dynamics
Ganymede: a moon the size of a planet with its own magnetic field
space24 days ago

Ganymede: a moon the size of a planet with its own magnetic field

Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, is about the same diameter as Mercury but far less massive, thanks to its rock-and-ice composition; it likely harbors more water than Earth’s surface, has a layered interior with an iron-rich core and a conductive ocean, and uniquely generates its own magnetic field, creating a small magnetosphere within Jupiter’s. The moon’s complex geology, thin atmosphere, and tidal interactions mean it is a world in its own right, not just a simple satellite, and the upcoming JUICE mission aims to orbit Ganymede in 2034 to study its ice shell, ocean, and dynamo.

via Space Daily|
#ganymede#jupiter#magnetosphere
No Ground Below: Jupiter’s Interior Is a Dense, Metallic Fluid, Not a Surface
space26 days ago

No Ground Below: Jupiter’s Interior Is a Dense, Metallic Fluid, Not a Surface

Jupiter has no solid surface; below its cloudy atmosphere the gas becomes a hot, dense, electrically conducting fluid of metallic hydrogen with no distinct boundary. The one-bar “surface” is an arbitrary reference level, not a real ground. A descending probe would be crushed, heated, and dissolved long before any crust could be reached. Galileo sampled only upper atmospheric layers, while Juno data suggest a diluted, boundary-free core. In short, Jupiter is a continuum interior, not a planet with a landing site.

via Space Daily|
#galileo-probe#gas-giant#jupiter
Juno Reveals Subsurface Heat Beneath Io, Solar System's Most Volcanic Moon
space29 days ago

Juno Reveals Subsurface Heat Beneath Io, Solar System's Most Volcanic Moon

NASA's Juno spacecraft, using its Microwave Radiometer, detected heat rising beneath Io’s surface during two close flybys, revealing a subsurface temperature gradient of more than 40°F a few feet deep. The heat could come from a conductive crust or cooling lava flows and underscores Io's extreme tidal heating, offering insights into volcanism and potentially informing studies of subsurface oceans on other worlds.

via Gizmodo|
#io#juno#jupiter
Juno Reveals Io's Hidden Heat: Subsurface Clues to a Volcanic Powerhouse
space-exploration1 month ago

Juno Reveals Io's Hidden Heat: Subsurface Clues to a Volcanic Powerhouse

NASA's Juno spacecraft used its Microwave Radiometer to peer beneath Io's surface during late-2023 and early-2024 flybys, uncovering a buried heat signature with temperatures rising several feet below the crust and localized warm pockets. The findings, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, show heat moving through Io's crust by conduction or from cooling lava, driven by Jupiter's tidal forces, and offer insights for understanding volcanism on Earth and subsurface oceans on other icy moons such as Europa and Ganymede.

via Space|
#io#juno#jupiter
Europa's Hidden Ocean Could Hold More Than Twice Earth's Ocean Water
space1 month ago

Europa's Hidden Ocean Could Hold More Than Twice Earth's Ocean Water

New evidence from magnetic data, surface geology, and interior models points to a global salty ocean beneath Europa’s ice, potentially containing more than twice Earth's ocean water and kept warm by tidal flexing from Jupiter; the Europa Clipper mission will map ice thickness, ocean depth, and chemistry to assess habitability, though no direct measurements have yet confirmed life or sea depth.

via Space Daily|
#europa#habitability#jupiter
Europa's Hidden Ocean Could Surpass Earth's Seas, Kept Liquid by Jupiter's Tides
space1 month ago

Europa's Hidden Ocean Could Surpass Earth's Seas, Kept Liquid by Jupiter's Tides

Europa, Jupiter's icy moon, may harbor a global salty ocean beneath its shell—potentially twice Earth's oceans—kept liquid by tidal heating from Jupiter's gravity. Evidence from Galileo's magnetic measurements and NASA's Europa Clipper mission suggests a conductive ocean beneath a likely thick ice shell, with no drilling yet. Clipper will conduct ~50 flybys using radar, magnetic, gravity, and thermal instruments to map the ice, probe the ocean, and assess habitability, not life detection. The ocean's persistence depends on ice thickness, heat transport, and chemistry, making Europa a leading target for understanding habitable worlds beyond Earth.

via Space Daily|
#astrobiology#europa#jupiter
Ancient Jupiter was roughly twice as large with a 50× stronger magnetic field
science1 month ago

Ancient Jupiter was roughly twice as large with a 50× stronger magnetic field

A 2025 Nature Astronomy study using the orbits of Jovian moons Amalthea and Thebe suggests Jupiter was about 2–2.5× its current size and had a magnetic field roughly 50× stronger shortly after the solar system formed (about 3.8 million years in). The stronger early convection would have produced a much larger magnetosphere; the authors infer these conditions from angular-momentum constraints rather than modeling formation directly. The article notes that a separate, older estimate of Jupiter’s current contraction rate (~2 cm/year) exists but is not measured by this study. This finding provides a benchmark for constraining the solar system’s early history.

via Space Daily|
#amalthea#early-solar-system#jupiter
Jupiter’s 1994 Comet Shower: A Turning Point for Space Observation and Defense
space1 month ago

Jupiter’s 1994 Comet Shower: A Turning Point for Space Observation and Defense

In July 1994, 21 fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter over six days, marking the first direct observation of a collision between solar-system bodies. Triggered by Brian Marsden’s 1993 orbital prediction, a coordinated global observing effort captured unprecedented data (Hubble, Galileo, Ulysses, Voyager 2) and revealed an enormous energy release (about 40 million megatons total; fragment G ~6 million megatons) that left a 12,000-km scar. The event reshaped space policy, leading to NASA’s Spaceguard Survey in 1998 to catalog near-Earth asteroids and informing modern planetary-defense efforts such as the 2022 DART mission; it also cemented Eugene Shoemaker’s legacy in lunar exploration.

via Space Daily|
#comet#jupiter#planetary-defense
Europa's Buried Ocean: Galileo’s Point Sparks a Vast Subsurface Sea
science1 month ago

Europa's Buried Ocean: Galileo’s Point Sparks a Vast Subsurface Sea

From Galileo's 1610 sighting of a tiny moon near Jupiter, scientists now consider Europa to host a global salty ocean buried under kilometers of ice, potentially larger than Earth's oceans. Magnetic data and surface geology suggest a 60–150 km-deep ocean under a 15–25 km ice shell, but no direct samples exist yet. NASA's Europa Clipper will study the ice shell, ocean, and chemistry to assess habitability without drilling through the ice or directly seeking life.

via Space Daily|
#europa#europa-clipper#ice-shell
Retro Game Boy Camera Captures Jupiter Through Giant Telescope
technology2 months ago

Retro Game Boy Camera Captures Jupiter Through Giant Telescope

An artist-musician attached a modified 1998 Game Boy Camera to Mount Wilson Observatory's 60-inch telescope using a 3D-printed C‑Mount adapter and eyepiece adapters, effectively turning the telescope into a roughly 730,000mm-long lens (about 24,384mm equivalent) to photograph Jupiter after a Moon shot proved too close. The shot revealed Jupiter’s bands and limb, and the image was printed on a Game Boy printer. The creator, Chris Graue, is known for past game‑console hacks and plans to continue experimenting during his Alaska tour with Lo(u)ser.

via PetaPixel|
#3dprinting#astrophotography#gameboycamera