Download Taylor Honeycutt 7th Grade Covenant Christian Academy How It

Taylor Honeycutt
7th Grade
Covenant Christian Academy
How It Works:
Juno spacecraft’s magnetometer, also known as MAG, is an instrument that measures the magnetic
field of Jupiter. It consists of two components: the Fluxgate Magnetometer (FGM) and the
Advanced Stellar Compass (ASC). The FGM measures the strength and direction of Jupiter’s
magnetic field, and the ASC measures the orientation of the spacecraft. Both sets of the MAG
instruments are positioned away from the rest of the spacecraft on a boom to isolate it from the
spacecraft’s magnetic effects caused by Juno’s other instruments. Juno circles Jupiter in a polar
orbit which allows MAG to measure the strongest and weakest magnetic fields. This orbit also
provides Juno access a larger fraction of the surface than are permitted by other orbits.
Why It Helps:
Jupiter’s surface is divided into bands, which includes the famous Great Red Spot and other,
smaller storms. A limited number of previous missions to Jupiter measured its magnetic fields.
Few probes have penetrated the surface of Jupiter; the ones that have were frozen and crushed by
the planet’s pressure, and thus did not live to tell the tale. Because no probe has been able to
measure the inside of a gas giant planet, we don’t understand the insides of gas giant planets’ well.
Studying Jupiter’s magnetic field via MAG will allow us to learn more about this topic and help
us better understand other gas giant planets.
The Sun goes through an 11-year cycle, and Jupiter’s magnetic fields are strongly affected by the
Solar wind. This Solar wind has a big impact on the overall “space weather”. The measurements
which Juno makes likely measure the planet in conditions never measured before.
What’s Next:
The orbit of Jupiter’s innermost seven moons (including Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) are
all within the magnetosphere. The upcoming mission to Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, is currently
being designed, and the launch is being planned for 2022. It would be immensely helpful to have
a better grasp on the magnetosphere of Jupiter so we can ensure the spacecraft is designed to
survive the mission. An example of this is the fact that sometimes Jupiter releases bursts of its
trapped particles in the form of cosmic rays, the most energetic particles in nature. The speed of
these particles is close to the speed of light. Having some of these cosmic rays released when the
Europa mission spacecraft is near could be disastrous. It would be good to understand these effects
in order to better design the Europa spacecraft.
The Juno mission may help improve models of star formation for the smallest stars that are only a
few times more massive than Jupiter itself. This may help us answer questions raised by the
discovery of solar systems like Trappist-1, a collection of planets surrounding a very small star
similar to Jupiter that was discovered recently. While the Sun is one thousand times larger than
Jupiter, the Trappist-1 star is only 80 times more massive than Jupiter. The magnetic field of the
Trappist-1 star may be much closer to Jupiter’s than it is to the Sun’s, so the Juno mission might
be able to help us better understand other solar systems. Perhaps Juno will be able to help us answer
some of mankind’s oldest questions.