{"69138":{"#nid":"69138","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Atmospheric Simulations Support NASA Mission to Jupiter","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn August of 2016, when NASA\u0027s Juno Mission begins sending back information about the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter, research done by Georgia Institute of Technology engineers using a 2,400-pound pressure vessel will help scientists understand what the data means. The Juno probe is scheduled to be launched August 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBecause Jupiter has been largely unchanged since its formation at the birth of our solar system, scientists hope Juno will resolve unanswered questions not only about the massive planet, but also about how our solar system evolved. Among the key questions are how much water exists there, and how that water evolved from the hydrogen-rich early solar system.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Jupiter collected much of the original solar nebula, that sheet of material that surrounded our sun when it formed,\u0022 said Paul Steffes, a professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a member of the Juno Mission Team. \u0022Knowing how much water is in the atmosphere of Jupiter is going to give us real insight into how the whole solar system has evolved. Understanding Jupiter really helps us understand how we got started.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo detect and measure water, Juno will carry a radiometer that can measure radio emissions produced by the planet itself at microwave frequencies. As those signals pass through Jupiter\u0027s atmosphere, they are altered by the water and other constituents. Understanding how the signals were altered can tell scientists much about the atmosphere of the giant planet. The probe will receive microwave signals at six different frequencies that scientists know are emitted at various levels of the planet\u0027s atmosphere.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The intensity of the microwave radiation at specific frequencies gets weaker depending on how much water is there,\u0022 Steffes explained. \u0022We\u0027ll be able to not only say whether or not there\u0027s water there, but we\u0027ll also be able to say at what altitude it exists based on the signatures of the microwaves coming out of the planet\u0027s atmosphere.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInterpreting that data will require knowledge that Steffes and his students are developing by simulating the Jupiter atmosphere in their pressure vessel, which is located inside an oven on the roof of Georgia Tech\u0027s Van Leer Building.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThough Jupiter is a long way from the sun, the planet\u0027s gravitational forces create high temperatures and tremendous pressures in the lower layers of the atmosphere where the water is believed to exist. The laboratory atmospheric simulations allow Steffes and his students to study the behavior of microwave signals passing through ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, helium, hydrogen and water vapor at pressures up to 100 times those of the Earth.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers, including graduate student Danny Duong, have made thousands of measurements at different temperatures, pressures and microwave frequencies as the signals pass through different combinations of gases. The laboratory work is expected to be completed during 2012.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The measurements we\u0027ve made will allow the radiometer on Juno to be calibrated,\u0022 Steffes explained. \u0022When Juno gets to Jupiter, we\u0027ll know what conditions each microwave signature corresponds to.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEarlier attempts to quantify the water on Jupiter -- the solar system\u0027s largest planet -- produced conflicting information. Steffes assisted the Galileo mission, which dropped a probe into the planet\u0027s atmosphere in 1995 and found surprisingly little water. Yet when the Comet Shoemaker-Levy crashed into Jupiter in 1994, it stirred up oxygen that led scientists to believe water was abundant.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOnce Juno reaches the planet, it will go into an elliptical polar orbit to avoid Jupiter\u0027s deadly radiation belts, which would harm the probe\u0027s electronic systems. Juno is scheduled to make 30 orbits, each of which will take 11 days. The researchers then expect to take about 18 months to process the information sent back to Earth.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBeyond measuring water on Jupiter, Juno will also study the planet\u0027s gravitation field in an effort to determine whether a solid core exists and how the giant body rotates. It will also measure magnetic fields and investigate Jupiter\u0027s auroras, which are the strongest in the solar system. And it will take a look at the planet\u0027s polar areas for the first time ever.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJuno is also notable because it will be the first deep-space probe to be powered by photovoltaic arrays, which were less expensive than the nuclear generators used on earlier missions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESteffes has been studying planetary atmospheres for more than 25 years, and has simulated conditions on Venus, Neptune, Saturn and Uranus in addition to Jupiter. The work has continued under the same contract since 1984. Georgia Tech\u0027s research into other planets goes back more than 50 years, Steffes noted.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudies of other planetary atmospheres can now be done from Earth using radio telescopes such as the Very Large Array in New Mexico, or the new Atacama array in Chile. But Jupiter\u0027s radiation belts, which are made up of energized particles spewed into the atmosphere by the volcanic moon Io, prevent that.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022To test for water, you have to operate at frequencies that are pretty low, about the same as a cell phone,\u0022 Steffes said. \u0022But the radiation belts are generating huge amounts of noise at those frequencies, so we couldn\u0027t do this observation from Earth because the radiation belts would mask the signal from Jupiter\u0027s atmosphere. We are very fortunate to have this opportunity to observe Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENASA\u0027s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E Georgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E 75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314\u003Cbr \/\u003E Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon (404-894-6986)(\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jtoon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ejtoon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E) or Abby Robinson (404-385-3364)(\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:abby@innovate.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Eabby@innovate.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: John Toon\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn August of 2016, when NASA\u0027s Juno Mission begins sending back information about the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter, research done by Georgia Tech engineers using a 2,400-pound pressure vessel will help scientists understand what the data means.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Simulating the Jupiter atmosphere supports NASA\u0027s Juno Mission."}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2011-08-02 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:09:52","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-08-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2011-08-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"69139":{"id":"69139","type":"image","title":"Paul Steffes","body":null,"created":"1449177239","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:13:59","changed":"1475894604","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:24"},"549031":{"id":"549031","type":"image","title":"Juno and Jupiter","body":null,"created":"1467320400","gmt_created":"2016-06-30 21:00:00","changed":"1475895343","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:55:43","alt":"Juno and Jupiter","file":{"fid":"92591","name":"juno_concept.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/juno_concept.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/juno_concept.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":45282,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/juno_concept.jpg?itok=sFWFCEbC"}},"69141":{"id":"69141","type":"image","title":"Paul Steffes and Danny Duong","body":null,"created":"1449177239","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:13:59","changed":"1475894604","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:24"}},"media_ids":["69139","549031","69141"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.ece.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.ece.gatech.edu\/faculty-staff\/fac_profiles\/bio.php?id=97","title":"Paul Steffes"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"150","name":"Physics and Physical Sciences"}],"keywords":[{"id":"13866","name":"Juno Mission"},{"id":"11219","name":"Jupiter"},{"id":"408","name":"NASA"},{"id":"1260","name":"Paul Steffes"},{"id":"166855","name":"School of Electrical and Computer Engineering"},{"id":"171105","name":"simulated atmosphere"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39451","name":"Electronics and Nanotechnology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJohn Toon\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=jt7\u0022\u003EContact John Toon\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-6986\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jtoon@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}