Even though CU Boulder Professor Fran Bagenal has been a part of five NASA planetary missions, including the Galileo mission to Jupiter in 1995, this latest mission to Jupiter called 鈥淛uno鈥� that she鈥檚 involved in has her nervous. That鈥檚 because this time the spacecraft, which enters orbit July 4, will be flying dangerously close to the big planet鈥檚 magnetic field.
鈥淚 am very nervous. This is a new place. We鈥檝e never flown a spacecraft through this potentially hazardous environment. Every finger and every toe is crossed and I am really hoping that all is going to go really well.听 We built the spacecraft with protection to hopefully survive some of these hazards but it鈥檚 a new world. We don鈥檛 know what it鈥檚 like around Jupiter. It鈥檚 terra incognito.鈥�
Bagenal is one of three researchers from CU-Boulder鈥檚 Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and five students, both undergraduates and graduate students, that are part of the Juno mission. Launched in 2011, the spacecraft is slated to orbit Jupiter鈥檚 poles 37 times roughly 3,000 miles above its clouds tops to better understand the origin and evolution of the largest planet in the solar system.
鈥淐lose to Jupiter there is a donut of energetic particles trapped in the magnetic field of Jupiter and we know this and we鈥檝e known for decades because these charged particles emit radio waves that we can observe here on Earth. And we know that there are a lot of them and we know that the fluxes are high. So we avoid them because our sensitive electronics and detectors we want to keep out of that nasty environment. On the other hand, we want to get up close if we鈥檙e going to measure what鈥檚 inside Jupiter.鈥�
Scientists hope to determine if Jupiter has solid core, measure the planet鈥檚 magnetic fields, hunt for water vapor and observe the polar auroras. CUT 3 鈥淭he whole point of Juno is to fly over the poles so that we can map out the gravity field, the magnetic field. You鈥檝e got to get up close to measure the details of those fields. (:11) By flying over it and measuring the amount of water in the atmosphere and measuring the gravity and the magnetic field inside we鈥檒l be able to work out what the structure is inside of Jupiter and that will test our theories about how solar systems are formed and how giant planets formed in particular.鈥�
In addition to Bagenal, LASP Professor Robert Ergun and Research Associate Robert Wilson are part of the Juno science team.听 Ergun, an expert on Earth鈥檚 magnetosphere and associated polar auroras, will be comparing the physical processes at Jupiter with those on Earth. Wilson is a member of the instrument team that will be using Juno to detect and analyze the electrons and charged particles that produce Jupiter鈥檚 bright auroras. The Juno spacecraft is carrying 11 experiments and includes a camera to provide images of the colorful Jovian cloud tops.听 听
听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 -CU-
