Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It is twice as large as all the other planets combined. It has 28 known satellites. The earliest discovered moons date back to 1610 and were discovered by Galileo. This is of interest because a future mission to Jupiter is named after this astronomer. Most of the remaining moons were discovered in the 20th century with advancement of technology. Some are discovered using better telescopes and others with missions directed towards Jupiter. Some of the more recently discovered moons are yet to be named. All that we know of Jupiter couldn’t possibly have come form just observation. Some have come by spacecraft passing by Jupiter on their way to other missions and some of the most comprehensive by missions specifically for Jupiter. (1) (2)
Information and images of Jupiter have been from mostly fly-bys over the years. The fly-bys include; Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Ulysses. Most of these missions were launched to investigate the outer solar system and served double duty by flying by Jupiter to gather information to send back to Earth.. The more recent Galileo mission was launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989 to travel to Jupiter and study the planet for a period of two years and has yielded a lot more specific information about the planet. Let’s look at each of the individual missions. (2)
Man On The Moon Essay
In the 1900’s space flight was just a topic of the future. But on June 20th, 1969 the US successfully landed a crew of men on the surface of the moon. The moon landing, Apollo 11 is considered one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of mankind. The purpose of the moon mission was to beat the Soviet Union in the space race which president at the time, John F. Kennedy made sure of. With ...
Pioneer 10 was the first mission to the outer solar system. It was launched in March of 1972. It took approximately 21 months for Pioneer 10 to reach Jupiter.
It was the first to investigate Jupiter and then it continued out of our solar system to continue its journey to the red star Aldebaran: A journey that will take about two million years. Pioneer 10 carried out 15 experiments. It studied interplanetary and planetary magnetic fields; solar wind parameters; cosmic rays; transition region of the heliosphere; neutral hydrogen abundance; distribution, size, mass, flux, and velocity of dust particles; Jovian aurorae (a); Jovian radio waves; atmosphere of Jupiter and some of its satellites; and to photograph Jupiter and its satellites. (3)
Pioneer 11 was launched in April of 1973. It was the second to investigate Jupiter and the first to investigate Saturn. It also had a mission to continue out of our solar system. It also studied also conducted the same experiments as Pioneer 10. (3)
The Voyager missions discovered a lot more about Jupiter than was previously known. Voyager 2 was launched in August of 1977 prior to Voyager 1, which was launched in September of 1977 but arrived about 4 months later in July of 1979. Voyager 1 collected data about Jupiter until it continued on to explore Saturn. Voyager continued on to explore Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. (4)
Some of the discoveries of Voyager 1 and 2 include:
-Found 3 new satellites around Jupiter.
-One of its satellites, Io, was found to have an active volcano, the only other solar system body aside from Earth to be so.
-Over 33,000 photographs taken of Jupiter and its five major satellites.
-Auroral emissions similar to Earth’s northern lights.
-Cloud-top lightning bolts, similar to superbolts in Earth’s high atmosphere.
-Discovered a ring around Jupiter.
-And many other highly technical things that are not understood by the average Joe. (4)
Ulysses was launched in October of 1990. It first did a Jupiter swing by in February of 1992 and now orbits the planet once every 6 years. It is using a heliospheric orbit, which means that its orbits around the north and south pole in about a year and then completes its 6 yearlong oval orbit away from the planet. It primary mission was to investigate, as a function of solar latitude, the properties of the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field, of galactic cosmic rays and neutral interstellar gas, and to study energetic particle composition and acceleration. It was launched by the European Space Agency. (5)
The Essay on Our Conceptualization Of The Solar System
The human conceptualization of the solar system dates back to the beginning of time. The early Egyptians worshipped the sun as a source of life and then the area called space was becoming a curiosity to humans. Throughout history, our knowledge of the solar system has increased and there is still much to learn. Through the research and studies of Brahmagupta, Ptolemy, Kepler, Brahe, Copernicus, ...
The last mission launched towards Jupiter is the Galileo mission. The Galileo mission consists of two spacecraft: an orbiter and an atmospheric probe. They were launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989. They wee actually launched in the opposite direction towards the inner solar system instead of the outer. They were launched towards the sun to use the gravity of Venus and the Earth to gain enough velocity to be able to reach their destination of Jupiter. They also made it as far out into the solar system as to observe the asteroid belt. They were able to make all of these observations while on their way to their primary mission. That mission was to send the atmospheric probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere and study Jupiter, its satellites, and its magnetosphere for two years with the orbiter. (6)
The Galileo mission was the first to send an atmospheric probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere. It was also the first to go into orbit around the planet. It also observed the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact Jupiter. Which was the first direct observation of a comet impacting any planet. (6)
Some of the results of the mission are:
-Discovered an intense radiation belt above Jupiter’s cloud tops.
-Far less water in atmosphere than estimated from previous Voyager observations.
-Extensive resurfacing of Io’s surface due to volcanic activity since the Voyagers flew by in 1979.
-Evidence for liquid water ocean under Europa’s surface. Thought to be twice that of the oceans found on Earth.
Although Galileo’s primary mission ended in 1997 after making 11 orbits, it left many questions unanswered so its missions have been extended. Each of Galileo’s orbits last for about two months and it has encountered 3 different moons in its travels. After having its mission extended it concentrated it next 14 orbits on the icy moon Europa and the fiery volcanoes of Io. (6)
The Term Paper on Galilean Satellites Galileo Jupiter First
We have all looked up at the sky, at one time or another. Wondering, why are we here, how did we come to exist to live on our planet Earth. We have studies our oceans, and dug deep into the Earth. The desire to discover other planets, study their atmospheres and geology are the dreams that spark a desire to look deep into are solar system and galaxy. In the past decades we have accomplished many ...
The Galileo spacecraft and probe traveled together for 6 years and in July 1995 they separated for the probe to finish its five-month flight to Jupiter. The probe entered the atmosphere of Jupiter at 106,000 mile per hour and then released a parachute and descended through the atmosphere for 58 minutes. The data it collected was sent to the spacecraft overhead and then sent back to Earth. It measured winds at over 450 miles per hour, which is stronger than anything here on Earth. (6)
The most recent discoveries on Jupiter and its surrounding moons bring up questions as to whether there is life out there. The moon Europa and its possible oceans under the ice shell are the most likely candidate. Scientists think that underwater thermal vents like those found at the extreme depths of some of Earth’s oceans might harbor life as well. Future exploration could possibly answer these questions. Maybe Mars isn’t the best hope for life out there.
References
(1)http://www.solarviews.com/eng/jupiter.htm#moons
(2)http://www.seds.org/billa/tnp/jupiter.html
(3)http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/cool/pioneer10/mission/
(4)http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/voyager.html
(5)http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov/
(6)http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/index.html
(a) auroras or au·ro·rae: a luminous phenomenon that consists of streamers or arches of light appearing in the upper atmosphere of a planet’s magnetic polar regions and is caused by the emission of light from atoms excited by electrons accelerated along the planet’s magnetic field lines (Webster’s Dictionary)
