Juno

PermaBanned

PermaBanned

PermaBanned

Soldato
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Getting close to launch, so why not fufill some of our desire for space exploration? :D

Juno is a NASA New Frontiers spacecraft with the primary aim of greatly increasing our understanding of the planet Jupiter, scheduled to launch atop an Atlas V 551.

Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

With its suite of science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras.

Juno will let us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system.

Juno will be the first mission to Jupiter using solar panels instead of the radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) used by Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, the Voyager program, Cassini–Huygens, and the Galileo orbiter. Advances made in both solar cell technology and efficiency over the past several decades makes it economically feasible to use solar panels of practical size to provide power at a distance of 5 AU from the Sun. In addition, RTGs are in short supply, limiting their availability for space missions. NASA plans several more projects involving RTGs,[14] and the decision to use alternate technology on this mission is more practical and economical than political.
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The launch is scheduled to take place on Friday, 5th of August at 16:34 BST (11:34 EDT), with a 59 minute window.

Here is where to watch it:

The new NASA TV link

NASA TV in HD on UStream

The Spaceflight Now link

Another 1200kbps stream​

Mission information:



There is a pre-launch news conference tomorrow, broadcast on NASA TV on Wednesday, 3rd August at 18:00 BST (13:00 EDT, Media and Education Channels).

The Juno NASA Tweetup will also go ahead on the days leading up to an including the event, featuring non other than kurtjmac (PC Builder, player of Minecraft, Astronomer and general all round 'good guy') as well as 149 other people. You will be able to follow this from their twitter accounts and at NASA TV (Education Channel) on Thursday, 4th of August at 15:30 PM BST (11:30 AM EDT), repeated at 8PM BST that day (Public, HD and Education Channels).

Once launched Juno will make her way directly to Jupiter for arrival sometime in 2016 where she will carry out her (Earth) year long mission during 33 orbits of the gas giant.

​
Juno all packed up and ready to go:

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Hoisting Juno atop the most powerful Atlas rocket at Launch Complex 41:

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The assembled launch vehicle:

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Oh, and obvious credits to simultorman for some of the links and formatting ;)
 
No need to explore our solar system when we got stuff at the bottom of the ocean that needs investigating.
 
Right I thought Jupiter was a ball of gas or something like that?

If it is, how comes it stays in a big circle?
 
PermaBanned said:
That's what biologists are for ;)



Ever heard of this rather abstract idea known as 'mavity'? :p
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Didnt really take interest in science, I know mavity means I cant float away... but gas, surely thats just air or like air.. so a big ball of it, how does mavity force it into a circle that moves around the sun?

Cant we replicate that on earty? Get a ball of gas and make a planet on our own planet?
 
mehuk said:
Right I thought Jupiter was a ball of gas or something like that?

If it is, how comes it stays in a big circle?
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mavity.

However it is not a perfect sphere, it's the same for Earth and the Sun it is not a perfect spherical shape.
 
mehuk said:
Didnt really take interest in science, I know mavity means I cant float away... but gas, surely thats just air or like air.. so a big ball of it, how does mavity force it into a circle that moves around the sun?

Cant we replicate that on earty? Get a ball of gas and make a planet on our own planet?
Click to expand...

There will be a solid, massive and dense core, formed under intense pressure, that almost provided energy to start nuclear chain reactions like the sun, also a ball of gas. However, almost is the operative word. The core instead serves to act as a massive gravitational centre, holding the gas in place.

The reason the gas coalesced in the first place is something that I can't remember clearly, I believe electromagnetic attraction from instantaneous dipoles in the gas molecules (as gas atoms always goes around in twos, the electrons (following the Bohr model) flow between the atoms, leading to a possibility of a minute and momentary positive charge on one side of one molecule, and an equal and opposite charge on another. However, viewing electrons as potentialities rather than quantifiable solid objects... I'm gonna stop there :p)

I've probably missed a few points, but that's what I can remember reading :)

Sorry for the atomic and astrophysics lecture :p
 
mattjd said:
mavity.

However it is not a perfect sphere, it's the same for Earth and the Sun it is not a perfect spherical shape.
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Because of the spin. Centrifugal forces draw the matter out. It's pretty awesome seeing pictures of supergiants being ripped apart from spinning too fast :)

I find it awesome that everything in the universe spins! Even quarks have spin, which influences an atom's spin etc :D
 
mehuk said:
Didnt really take interest in science, I know mavity means I cant float away... but gas, surely thats just air or like air.. so a big ball of it, how does mavity force it into a circle that moves around the sun?

Cant we replicate that on earty? Get a ball of gas and make a planet on our own planet?
Click to expand...

You're surrounded by gas - mavity is what pulls the atmosphere towards the centre of the Earth. It also pulls everything in the universe towards everything else in the universe, so when the solar system formed from a huge disk of matter it pulled the clumps of gas together, and then you have a bigger clump of gas. That keeps going and keeps going until you have a giant clump of gas known as a planet. Notice how the gas giants form further out and the rocky planets closer to the sun because they're heavier and get pulled towards it more. If you're having trouble understanding it then this (might :D ) help:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/sarcastro/cosmic-crush

And one of the things Juno is supposed to find out is if Jupiter has a solid core or not.

Gackt said:
We can do both.
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Exactly, what do you expect from a National Aeronautics and Space Administration? :p
 
Interesting, thanks for the pointers.

I was going to buy one of those telescope things, the proper ones that can see planets... but I didnt really know where to look and in the end was told that it wouldnt be that good a viewing anyway, I mean I wanted to see the surface of the planets like you can see the holes in the moon.... for like Mars and that id just see a circle.
 
mehuk said:
Interesting, thanks for the pointers.

I was going to buy one of those telescope things, the proper ones that can see planets... but I didnt really know where to look and in the end was told that it wouldnt be that good a viewing anyway, I mean I wanted to see the surface of the planets like you can see the holes in the moon.... for like Mars and that id just see a circle.
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Yeah, but to be fair Mars is tiny, Jupiter and Saturn are far more 'impressive' :p

The moon through a scope is immense. But yeah... i mean, you could just google 'mars' and see images from observatories or rovers or probes, but there's something about seeing it 'in the flesh' that's just amazing, nothing between you and it.
 
Shayper said:
There will be a solid, massive and dense core, formed under intense pressure, that almost provided energy to start nuclear chain reactions like the sun, also a ball of gas. However, almost is the operative word. The core instead serves to act as a massive gravitational centre, holding the gas in place.

The reason the gas coalesced in the first place is something that I can't remember clearly, I believe electromagnetic attraction from instantaneous dipoles in the gas molecules (as gas atoms always goes around in twos, the electrons (following the Bohr model) flow between the atoms, leading to a possibility of a minute and momentary positive charge on one side of one molecule, and an equal and opposite charge on another. However, viewing electrons as potentialities rather than quantifiable solid objects... I'm gonna stop there :p)

I've probably missed a few points, but that's what I can remember reading :)

Sorry for the atomic and astrophysics lecture :p
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Whatcha been smoking?

Atoms have mass, therefore atoms are attracted in space via mavity, no matter how minute it is. Its an exponential process, i.e it might take millions of years for the first few building block atoms to attract to create a big enough mass to accelerate the process, but once up and running, the accrection of bigger matter will speed things up.
 
Also, there's no such thing as centrifugal force. Gasses end up on the outside because they're lighter (read; have less mass) than the solids, which have a larger gravitational attraction.

lolshayper? ;)
 
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