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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday June 26 2018, @01:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the planety-night dept.

Although originally slated to crash into Jupiter this month, Juno, NASA's Jovian explorer, has been given a three-year extension to gather all of NASAs planned scientific measurements, NASA announced earlier this month.

If it keeps producing images like this, showcasing Jupiter's writhing, stormy face, I really hope they never crash the Absolute Unit.

The picture was snapped on May 23 as Juno swung past the planet for a 13th time, only 9,600 miles from its "surface", the tangle of tumultuous clouds that mark its exterior. The bright white hues represent clouds that are likely made of a mix of ammonia and water, while the darker blue-green spirals represent cloud material "deeper in Jupiter's atmosphere."


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  • (Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:15PM (5 children)

    by Snow (1601) on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:15PM (#698798) Journal

    I always wanted to know what the surface looks like. Do we have communication methods of penetrating the thick cloud cover? Can we build something to withstand the intense pressure?

    They say that the surface is an ocean of liquid gas. Is there a sharp delineation between gas and liquid or does it just kinda transition over several kilometers?

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:31PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:31PM (#698801) Journal

    The core of Jupiter is still a mystery. [universetoday.com]

    It's mystery is exceeded only by its power.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:32PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 26 2018, @03:32PM (#698803) Journal

    I always wanted to know what the surface looks like. Do we have communication methods of penetrating the thick cloud cover? Can we build something to withstand the intense pressure?

    Some frequencies of EM should be able to penetrate down to where the layers of dense fluids become conductive and/or ionized. Probably, like on Earth, we'll see gradual increase in absorption with multiple sudden changes in the properties of layers of atmosphere/surface as we go down.

    They say that the surface is an ocean of liquid gas. Is there a sharp delineation between gas and liquid or does it just kinda transition over several kilometers?

    It quickly heats up to supercritical temperatures. Past that there's no distinction between liquid and gas. And at high enough pressure, solid layers will develop, but they won't have much in common with our concept of solids.

  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday June 26 2018, @04:08PM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday June 26 2018, @04:08PM (#698817) Journal

    Do we have communication methods of penetrating the thick cloud cover? Can we build something to withstand the intense pressure?

    To bad there wasn't something like radio waves in some form.

    What I want to know is why they were going to crash it this month if it has 3 years of fuel left and all parts are working fine.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 27 2018, @08:29AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 27 2018, @08:29AM (#699197)

      why they were going to crash it this month

      Probably they brought spares, reserves, ... it's not like you can resupply it easily out there. They now see that expected "bad things" didn't happen so they decided to extend the mission.

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday June 26 2018, @04:26PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday June 26 2018, @04:26PM (#698834)

    If you pack light, there's a guy who can get you there for a cool $130M.
    Life support is a three orders of magnitude extra.

    Just the idea that billionaires can now be sent out to "rest" in a gas giant is pretty Sci-Fi, isn't it ?