A NASA spacecraft is bound for a Fourth of July encounter with Jupiter in the latest quest to study how the largest planet in the solar system formed and evolved.
As
Juno approaches Jupiter's harsh radiation environment, it will fire its
main engine to slow down and then slip into orbit around the planet.
"It's
a one-shot deal," mission chief scientist Scott Bolton from the
Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said.
"Everything is riding on it."
If
all goes as planned, Juno will spend nearly a year circling Jupiter's
poles and peering through clouds to scrutinize the planet's southern and
northern lights, which are considered the strongest in the solar
system.
"Jupiter
is a planet on steroids. Everything about it is extreme," Bolton said
during a briefing for reporters from NASA headquarters in Washington.
Since
the 1970s, spacecraft have circled or zipped past Jupiter, sending back
stunning views of the planet's signature Great Red Spot — A long-lived
storm — and its numerous moons. The most extensive study came from the
Galileo spacecraft, which dropped a probe on the surface. Galileo
explored Jupiter and its moons for 14 years.
Unlike
Earth, which is a rocky planet, Jupiter is a gas giant made up mostly
of hydrogen and helium. Scientists still don't know whether Jupiter has a
solid core or how much oxygen and water the planet has — information
that could help unravel how Earth and the solar system came to be.
The
trip to Jupiter — the fifth planet from the sun — took nearly five
years, allowing Juno to loop around the inner solar system and use Earth
as a gravitational slingshot to propel itself into deep space.
Previous
missions to Jupiter have relied on nuclear power sources because of the
distance from the sun. Juno is running on solar power, with three huge
panels designed to face the sun during most of the mission. The wings
are 29 feet long and 9 feet wide.
Compiled by Saturday Page
No comments:
Post a Comment