NASA's next big mission to the biggest planet in the solar system is about to commence and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) is giving us a valuable insight as to what the Juno spacecraft can expect when it enters Jovian orbit in just a few days.
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At the ESO's Paranal Observatory located high in Chile's Atacama Desert, the VLT consists of four main 8.2 meter telescopes and four 1.4 meter auxiliary telescopes. Together, they can be used as the VLT Interferometer, but during this recent Jupiter campaign astronomers used the VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared (VISIR) instrument attached to just one of the powerful 8.2 meter 'scopes.
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As part of a wider campaign to map Jupiter's complex atmosphere, the VLT was used in parallel with observations by other telescopes in Chile, Hawaii and contributions by amateur astronomers from around the world. But the VISIR instrument was able to see the infrared radiation leaking through Jupiter's cloud tops, revealing an almost hellish-looking scene -- even though Jupiter's cloud top temperature is actually very cold.
Capturing such high-resolution views of the gas giant from the ground is no easy task. Though Paranal Observatory is situated atop a 2,600 meter (8,700 ft) high mountain under some of the driest, pristine skies in the world, some clever imaging techniques are required to sharpen ground-based astronomical images.
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Using a technique known as "lucky imaging," the VISIR records thousands of individual frames. Then, the images that are least affected by the blurring effects of the atmosphere (the "lucky frames") are selected and combined as one to produce an extremely sharp final observation, revealing the finest of details in Jupiter's infrared atmosphere.
"These maps will help set the scene for what Juno will witness in the coming months," said Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester. "Observations at different wavelengths across the infrared spectrum allow us to piece together a three-dimensional picture of how energy and material are transported upwards through the atmosphere."
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"The combined efforts of an international team of amateur and professional astronomers have provided us with an incredibly rich dataset over the past eight months," added Glenn Orton, the lead scientist in charge of the ground-based campaign in support of the Juno mission. "Together with the new results from Juno, the VISIR dataset in particular will allow researchers to characterize Jupiter's global thermal structure, cloud cover and distribution of gaseous species."
So as Juno rapidly approaches Jupiter, set for arrival on July 4, a lot of ground-work has been done to prepare ourselves and the probe for its exciting and very dangerous mission.
Jupiter's water abundance is expected to show astronomers how it was formed, and by extension, the story of water in the solar system. Scientists are eager to use the mission to peer inside of Jupiter and to see how much water is inside. It is already known that the water in the stratosphere mostly comes from the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact of 1995, but deeper down the water abundance is unknown.
Image: Artist's impression of the young solar system Beta Pictoris. Credit: NASA
Most observations of Jupiter's weather are done by amateurs, who can talk about bands changing color, the size of the Great Red Spot shrinking, and other phenomena on the solar system's larger planet. Juno will be able to probe beneath the surface, however, to see what is happening underneath. It is poorly understood how deep weather features go on the giant planet, so Juno will give astronomers a better glimpse.
Image: Jupiter's cloud belts are known to change shape, disappear and reappear, as seen in this 2010 image composite of the planet. By observing in three different wavelengths, astronomers were able to spot the south equatorial band of Jupiter reappearing by looking beneath cloudtops. Credit: NASA/JPL/UH/NIR
Image: Jupiter's immense gravity influences several dozen moons, such as those shown here in this artist's impression. Credit: NASA/JPL
It's not known what kind of core Jupiter has (if it has any core at all), which is interesting because the planet has such an intense magnetic environment. On Earth, the core's rotation is believed to create the magnetic field; this means that Jupiter's precise magnetic generation is somewhat unknown. Scientists hope to learn more about the interior of Jupiter by examining its magnetic and gravity fields.
Image: An X-ray aurora at Jupiter seen by the Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2011, and put on a simultaneous optical image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SwRI/R.Gladstone et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage (AURA/STScI)
Jupiter has a really intense magnetic field that generates huge auroras on the planet. Scientists hope to get a better sense about how the magnetosphere (the entire magnetic environment) behaves, such as the interactions with the solar wind and with Jupiter's moons.
Image: Artist's conception of a hot Jupiter, meaning a Jupiter-sized planet that is close to its parent star. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
Jupiter is often considered an analog for exoplanets, but how closely it resembles them is something we are still learning about. It is hoped that by probing Jupiter's insides with Juno, that we can create models about how our own solar system formed. Presumably this could extend to other solar systems, depending on what we find and how relevant the information is.