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By NASA
2 min read
Jovian Vortex Hunters Spun Up Over New Paper
Jumping Jupiter! The results are in, storm chasers! Thanks to your help over the last two years the Jovian Vortex Hunter project has published a catalog of 7222 vortices, which you can download here. Each vortex is an enormous swirling windstorm in Jupiter’s atmosphere–terrifying yet beautiful to behold.
The vortices are labeled by color (“white” is most common, then “dark”, then “red”).
The catalog reveals distributions of vortex sizes, aspect ratios, and locations on the planet. For example, your work showed that white and dark vortices are preferentially found near the poles. These distributions help researchers derive general parameters about Jupiter’s atmosphere that can give us insights about its internal processes and the atmospheres of other planets.
Over 5,000 of you helped build this catalog by performing over a million classifications of images of Jupiter from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno mission. The details of the catalog are now published in this paper in the Planetary Science Journal. You can also learn more about this amazing volunteer effort in a video you can find on the Jovian Vortex Hunter Results webpage.Thanks to your efforts, The Jovian Vortex Hunter project is out of data. But you can work with JunoCam data in a different way by participating in NASA’s JunoCam citizen science project.
A set of really cool vortices–spinning storms–found by Jovian Vortex Hunters. Data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno mission.
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Last Updated Dec 17, 2024 Editor Bill Keeter Related Terms
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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The north polar region of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io was captured by NASA’s Juno during spacecraft’s 57th close pass of the gas giant on Dec. 30, 2023. Data from recent flybys is helping scientists understand Io’s interior. Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Image processing by Gerald Eichstädt A new study points to why, and how, Io became the most volcanic body in the solar system.
Scientists with NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter have discovered that the volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io are each likely powered by their own chamber of roiling hot magma rather than an ocean of magma. The finding solves a 44-year-old mystery about the subsurface origins of the moon’s most demonstrative geologic features.
A paper on the source of Io’s volcanism was published on Thursday, Dec. 12, in the journal Nature, and the findings, as well as other Io science results, were discussed during a media briefing in Washington at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting, the country’s largest gathering of Earth and space scientists.
About the size of Earth’s Moon, Io is known as the most volcanically active body in our solar system. The moon is home to an estimated 400 volcanoes, which blast lava and plumes in seemingly continuous eruptions that contribute to the coating on its surface.
This animated tour of Jupiter’s fiery moon Io, based on data collected by NASA’s Juno mission, shows volcanic plumes, a view of lava on the surface, and the moon’s internal structure. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/Koji Kuramura/Gerald Eichstädt Although the moon was discovered by Galileo Galilei on Jan. 8, 1610, volcanic activity there wasn’t discovered until 1979, when imaging scientist Linda Morabito of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California first identified a volcanic plume in an image from the agency’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.
“Since Morabito’s discovery, planetary scientists have wondered how the volcanoes were fed from the lava underneath the surface,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Was there a shallow ocean of white-hot magma fueling the volcanoes, or was their source more localized? We knew data from Juno’s two very close flybys could give us some insights on how this tortured moon actually worked.”
The Juno spacecraft made extremely close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, getting within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of its pizza-faced surface. During the close approaches, Juno communicated with NASA’s Deep Space Network, acquiring high-precision, dual-frequency Doppler data, which was used to measure Io’s gravity by tracking how it affected the spacecraft’s acceleration. What the mission learned about the moon’s gravity from those flybys led to the new paper by revealing more details about the effects of a phenomenon called tidal flexing.
This five-frame sequence shows a giant plume erupting from Io’s Tvashtar volcano, extending 200 miles (330 kilometers) above the fiery moon’s surface. It was captured over an eight-minute period by NASA’s New Horizons mission as the spacecraft flew by Jupiter in 2007.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/SwRI Prince of Jovian Tides
Io is extremely close to mammoth Jupiter, and its elliptical orbit whips it around the gas giant once every 42.5 hours. As the distance varies, so does Jupiter’s gravitational pull, which leads to the moon being relentlessly squeezed. The result: an extreme case of tidal flexing — friction from tidal forces that generates internal heat.
“This constant flexing creates immense energy, which literally melts portions of Io’s interior,” said Bolton. “If Io has a global magma ocean, we knew the signature of its tidal deformation would be much larger than a more rigid, mostly solid interior. Thus, depending on the results from Juno’s probing of Io’s gravity field, we would be able to tell if a global magma ocean was hiding beneath its surface.”
The Juno team compared Doppler data from their two flybys with observations from the agency’s previous missions to the Jovian system and from ground telescopes. They found tidal deformation consistent with Io not having a shallow global magma ocean.
“Juno’s discovery that tidal forces do not always create global magma oceans does more than prompt us to rethink what we know about Io’s interior,” said lead author Ryan Park, a Juno co-investigator and supervisor of the Solar System Dynamics Group at JPL. “It has implications for our understanding of other moons, such as Enceladus and Europa, and even exoplanets and super-Earths. Our new findings provide an opportunity to rethink what we know about planetary formation and evolution.”
There’s more science on the horizon. The spacecraft made its 66th science flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops on Nov. 24. Its next close approach to the gas giant will occur 12:22 a.m. EST, Dec. 27. At the time of perijove, when Juno’s orbit is closest to the planet’s center, the spacecraft will be about 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops and will have logged 645.7 million miles (1.039 billion kilometers) since entering the gas giant’s orbit in 2016.
More About Juno
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) funded the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft. Various other institutions around the U.S. provided several of the other scientific instruments on Juno.
More information about Juno is available at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/juno
News Media Contacts
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Erin Morton
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-385-1287 / 202-805-9393
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / erin.morton@nasa.gov
Deb Schmid
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
210-522-2254
dschmid@swri.org
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Last Updated Dec 12, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Knowing whether or not a planet elsewhere in the galaxy could potentially be habitable requires knowing a lot about that planet’s sun. Sarah Peacock relies on computer models to assess stars’ radiation, which can have a major influence on whether or not one of these exoplanets has breathable atmosphere.
Name: Sarah Peacock
Title: Assistant Research Scientist
Formal Job Classification: Astrophysicist
Organization: Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Astrophysics Division, Science Directorate (Code 667)
Sarah Peacock is a research scientist with the Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.Courtesy of Sarah Peacock What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?
My overarching research goal is to find habitable planets in other solar systems. To do this, I study the high-energy radiation that specific stars produce to help determine if life can exist on any earthlike planets that orbit them.
What is your educational background?
In 2013, I received a Bachelor of Arts in astrophysics from the University of Virginia. I received both my master’s and doctorate degrees from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in 2016 and 2019, respectively.
What drew you to study the stars?
In high school, I took an astronomy class. We had a planetarium in our school and I had a wonderful teacher who inspired me to fall in love with the stars. She also showed us how many of the Harry Potter characters are drawn from the constellations and that spoke to my heart because I am a Harry Potter fan!
How did you come to Goddard?
I started at Goddard as a NASA post-doctoral fellow in July 2020, but I first saw the center the day before Goddard shut down due to COVID.
How does high-energy radiation show you what planets outside our solar system might be habitable?
High-energy radiation can cause a planet to lose its atmosphere. If a planet is exposed to too much high-energy radiation, the atmosphere can be blown off, and if there is no atmosphere, then there is nothing for life as we know it to breathe.
We cannot directly measure the specific radiation that I study, so we have to model it. The universe has so many stars, and almost all stars host a planet. There are approximately 5,500 confirmed exoplanets so far, with an additional 7,500 unconfirmed exoplanets.
I help identify systems that either have too much radiation, so planets in the habitable zone (the region around a star where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface) are probably lifeless, or systems that have radiation levels that are safer. Ultimately, my research helps narrow down the most likely systems to host planets that should have stable atmospheres.
Sarah Peacock research goal is to find habitable planets in other solar systems.Courtesy of Sarah Peacock Where does your data come from?
I predominately use data from the Hubble Space Telescope and from the now-retired spacecraft GALEX. My work itself is more theory-focused though: I create a modeled stellar spectrum across all wavelengths and use observations to validate my modeling.
What other areas of research are you involved in?
I am working with a team analyzing data from the James Webb Space Telescope to see if earthlike planets around M-type stars (a star that is cooler and smaller than the Sun) have atmospheres and, if so, what the composition of those atmospheres is. An exciting result from this work is that we may have detected water in the atmosphere of a rocky planet for the first time ever. However, we cannot yet distinguish with our current observations if that water comes from the planet or from spots on the star (starspots on this host star are cold enough for water to exist in gas form).
I am also helping manage a NASA Innovative Advance Concept (NIAC) study led by my mentor, Ken Carpenter, to work on the Artemis Enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI). If selected for further development, this imager would be an ultraviolet/optical interferometer located on the South Pole of the Moon. With this telescope, we would be able to map the surface of stars, image accretion disks, and image the centers of Active Galactic Nuclei.
As a relatively new employee to Goddard, what have been your first impressions?
Everyone who I have met, especially those in my lab, are incredibly friendly and welcoming. Starting during the pandemic, I was worried about feeling isolated, but instead, I was blown away by how many folks in my lab reached out to set up calls to introduce themselves and suggest opportunities for collaboration. It made me feel welcome.
Who is your mentor and what did your mentor advise you?
Ken Carpenter is my mentor. He encourages me to pursue my aspirations. He supports letting me chart my own path and being exposed to many different areas of research. I thank Ken for his support and encouragement and for including me on his projects.
“Everyone who I have met, especially those in my lab, are incredibly friendly and welcoming.”Courtesy of Sarah Peacock What do you do for fun?
I am a new mom, so my usual hobbies are on pause! Right now, fun is taking care of my baby and introducing life experiences to him.
As a recently selected member of the Executive Committee for NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG), what are your responsibilities?
The NASA ExoPAG is responsible for soliciting and coordinating scientific community input into the development and execution of NASA’s exoplanet exploration program. We solicit opinions and advice from any scientist who studies exoplanets. We are a bridge between NASA’s exoplanet scientists and NASA Headquarters in Washington.
What is a fun fact about yourself?
I got married the same day I defended my Ph.D. I had my defense in the morning and got married in the afternoon at the courthouse.
Who is your favorite author?
I love to read; I always have three books going. My favorite author is Louise Penny, who writes mysteries, but I read all genres. Right now, I am reading a biography about Marjorie Merriweather Post.
What is your favorite quote?
“The most that can be expected from any model is that it can supply a useful approximation to reality: All models are wrong; some models are useful.” —Box and Draper 1987
By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
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Last Updated Dec 10, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
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You Are Now Arriving at ‘Pico Turquino’
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image following a successful 107-meter (about 351 feet) drive on sol 1332, Martian day 1,332 of the Mars 2020 mission. The rocks in the foreground are part of “Pico Turquino,” a large ridge exposed in the Jezero crater rim that the mission team plans on investigating up-close. The rover acquired this image of the area in front of it using its onboard Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera A, on Nov. 18, 2024 at the local mean solar time of 12:43:14. NASA/JPL-Caltech Earth planning date: Monday, Nov. 18, 2024
Perseverance has been continuing its sightseeing tour of the Jezero crater rim, with this week’s travel itinerary including an up-close look at “Pico Turquino.” Here, the team hopes to investigate the history recorded in this approximately 200-meter-long region (about 656 feet) of exposed outcrop. Such rocks may reveal clues of ancient geologic processes including those that predate or are related to the violent impact that formed Jezero crater. Recently, the team has been studying a number of outcropping ridges during the rover’s ascent of the crater rim, with the goal of characterizing the compositional diversity and structure of these exposed rocks.
After paralleling Pico Turquino about 70 meters (about 230 feet) to the south last week, the team planned a close approach over the weekend that positioned the rover at the southwestern extent of the ridge. Prior to the 107-meter drive (about 351 feet) on sol 1332, the team planned two sols of targeted remote sensing with Mastcam-Z and SuperCam to investigate local regolith and conduct long distance imaging of a steep scarp and 20-meter (about 66 feet) diameter crater to the northwest. The successful approach drive on sol 1332 allowed the team to come into Monday’s planning with the focus of assessing outcrop amenable for proximity science and repositioning the rover for upcoming abrasion activities.
Following our abrasion activities at Pico Turquino, the rover will be hitting the road en route to its next science stop at “Witch Hazel Hill.” Orbital views of Witch Hazel Hill suggest the area may contain layered and light-toned bedrock that likely record important information of the planet’s ancient climate. Prior to arriving at Witch Hazel Hill, the rover plans to pass through a high point known as Lookout Hill that will afford the team incredible views looking back into the crater, as well as get a glimpse westward of terrain far beyond Jezero.
Written by Bradley Garczynski, Postdoctoral Scientist at Western Washington University
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Last Updated Dec 02, 2024 Related Terms
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