NASA’s Juno mission reveals cyclones, fierce magnetic fields

As the largest planet orbiting the sun, Jupiter has a profound effect on our solar system.

But until recently, scientists have known little about Jupiter’s origins and structure. What they did know some might call boring — a gas planet that didn’t vary much from pole to pole.

On Thursday, scientists unveiled the first in-depth science gathered by NASA’s Juno mission, and it completely rewrites the Jupiter narrative. Turns out the planet is home to giant, swirling storms, has a magnetic field that’s stronger than anyone imagined and a core scientists described as “fuzzy.”

“We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “But now that we are here, we are finding that Jupiter can throw the heat, as well as knuckleballs and sliders. There is so much going on here that we didn’t expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter.”

The Juno spacecraft was launched in 2011 and completedits first fly by of Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Since then, it’s completed four more passes, traveling at mind boggling speed sand passing just over the planet’s clouds.

Each flyby, which occurs about every 53 days, reveals new insight, scientists said Thursday.

For example, Bolton described how images of Jupiter’s previously unseen poles show a chaotic scene of bright oval features, very different from Saturn’ s polar regions.

A time-lapse of Juno images reveals that the ovals are cyclones, some with diameters up to 1,400 kilometers across.

“The fact that there are a number of cyclones... it’s not something we expected to see,” Bolton said.

A separate analysis has revealed that close to the planet, the magnetic field greatly exceeded scientists’ expectations. It has been measured at 7.766 Gauss, or roughly 10 times Earth’s magnetic field.

“Already, we see that the magnetic field looks lumpy: It is stronger in some places and weaker in others,” said Jack Conner ney, Juno investigator and the lead for the mission’s magnetic field investigation at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “This uneven distribution suggests that the field might be generated by dynamo action closer to the surface, above the layer of metallic hydrogen. Every fly by we execute gets us closer to determining where and how Jupiter’s dynamo works.”

Not only is the Juno mission yielding a treasure trove of science, the solarpowered craft appears to be holding up well to the radiation and after being pelted with specks of interplanetary dust traveling 10 times faster than a bullet.

“Juno is very healthy,” said Heidi Becker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. “Its suit of armor is working.”

Scientists said Thursday that they can’ t wait to unlock even more Jovian mysteries — the next flyby is scheduled for July 11. By the time the mission wraps up in 2018, it will have completed at least 32 passes of Jupiter.