Ganymede is likely to have some special features. It is not only Jupiter’s largest moon, it is by far the largest in the entire solar system, about the size of Mercury and our own moon. CombinedIt contains about six times as much liquid water as Earth, but it could be hidden under 100 miles of ice, Witasse says. Ganymede is also unique in that it has an iron core that produces the moon’s own magnetic field. It is the only rocky body in the solar system, other than Mercury and Earth. Its magnetic field, which may have originated from its proximity to Jupiter, may have caused tidal bending of its internal structure.
Juice includes a high-resolution optical camera called Janus, a laser altimeter called GALA to measure the tidal deformation of Ganymede due to Jupiter’s gravitational pull, and a submillimeter-wave instrument called SWI to help scientists study these objects from a distance. Equipped with numerous tools. We will study Jupiter’s atmosphere and study the interaction of the magnetic fields of Jupiter and Ganymede using a magnetometer called J-Mag. Alessandro Atzei, engineer of his payload system for the project, said: “Many new discoveries are expected, such as understanding the composition of the magnetic field, lunar materials, and Jupiter’s atmosphere.”
Atzei also highlights the spacecraft’s ice-piercing radar and its gravitational probe, named RIME and 3GM respectively. Radar can detect pockets of groundwater up to about 10 kilometers deep. It’s probably sensitive enough to detect it under the surface of Europa, but not that of Ganymede. A gravity probe could provide information about Ganymede’s internal ocean, and could conclusively determine whether Callisto has an ocean deep underground.
Juice follows a long line of space probes to the outer planets. NASA’s Pioneer 10 flew near Jupiter in his 1973, followed six years later by both Voyager spacecraft. The Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter for many years, starting in 1995, and was able to discover the lunar magnetic field. Today, NASA’s Juno Orbiter is still performing its extended missions. On April 8, it completed its 50th flyby of Jupiter since 2016. It’s hard to predict if Juno will still be on track when Juice arrives, but the new spaceship will build on top of it. ancestral achievements and legacies.
“Our radiometers have seen through the ice of Europa and Ganymede for the first time. Their radar equipment is designed to do that in a different way,” said Juno’s principal investigator at the Southwest Institute. says astronomer Scott Bolton. “Their dataset informs us so that we can look back and reinterpret the Juno data.”
Juno has revealed a dramatic view of Jupiter’s mysterious auroras and swirling extreme cyclones, and mapped a strange patch of the planet’s magnetic field called the Great Ceruleus. (Unlike the iconic red Earth-sized storm.) Juno’s solar power system and armored vaults that protect sensitive electronics from Jupiter’s radiation have proven to be highly effective designs. JUICE engineers adopted something similar. There will also be synergies between Juice and his Europa Clipper, an orbiter that NASA will launch next year and he will arrive in 2030.
When the Galileo probe finished its work, it burrowed deep into Jupiter and burned up in the gas giant’s atmosphere. Cassini later did the same, plunging into Saturn in 2017 and completing its mission in dramatic fashion while collecting its last data and keeping out space junk. A similar fate awaits Juice, perhaps in 2035 or a few years, when he plummets onto Ganymede at the end of its lifespan.
Gas giants and their major moons have been of human interest since Galileo Galilei’s discovery of Ganymede and its sister moons in 1610 and his telescopic observations of Jupiter itself. To this day, people scan the night sky looking for planets and Venus. Now the space agency is giving the Jupiter system its closest look yet. “I think Jupiter is becoming a campaign target, as Mars has been for quite some time,” says Bolton. “It’s a planet that has long intrigued us, but it’s not easy to get to. It’s great to have multiple spacecraft out there at the same time.”
