Jupiter tagged posts

The giant planet Jupiter was formed four times further from the sun than its current orbit, and migrated inwards in the solar system over a period of 700,000 years. Researchers found proof of this incredible journey thanks to a group of asteroids close to Jupiter.

It is known that gas giants around other stars are often located very near their sun. According to accepted theory, these gas planets were formed far away and subsequently migrated to an orbit closer to the star.

Now researchers from Lund University and other institutions have used advanced computer simulations to learn more about Jupiter’s journey through ou...

Latest data on Jupiter and Saturn from Juno and Cassini missions challenge current theories of planetary formation. The latest data sent back by the Juno and Cassini spacecraft from giant gas planets Jupiter and Saturn have challenged a lot of current theories about how planets in our solar system form and behave.

The detailed magnetic and gravity data have been “invaluable but also confounding,” said David Stevenson from Caltech, who will present an update of both missions this week at the 2019 American Physical Society March Meeting in Boston.

“Although there are puzzles yet to be explained, this is already clarifying some of our ideas about how planets form, how they make magnetic fields and how the winds blow,” Stevenson said.

Cassini orbited Satur...

This composite image, derived from data collected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter, shows the central cyclone at the planet’s north pole and the eight cyclones that encircle it. Credit: Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM

NASA’s Juno discovers a brand new Jupiter. In the year and a half NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter, the science team led by Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Scott Bolton has discovered that the orange and white bands that characterize Jupiter’s outer atmosphere extend thousands of miles into the gas giant’s atmosphere. The findings are part of a four-article collection about Juno science results in the March 8th edition of the journal Nature.

“With Juno only about a thir...

Artist’s concept of NASA’s Voyager spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Are we alone? Forty years ago, NASA rocket scientists sought to answer this question by launching the Voyager spacecraft, twin unmanned spaceships that would travel further than any human-made object in history. When Voyager 1 and 2 launched about two weeks apart in 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, scientists knew little about the outer planets in our solar system, and could hardly imagine the scope of their upcoming space odyssey.

“None of us knew, when we launched 40 years ago, that anything would still be working, and continuing on this pioneering journey,” said Voyager project scientist Ed Stone...