Juno -- In Extended Mission Time, And Budget -- Offers More Deep Learnings, About How Thick, Hot Atmospheric Winds Propagate... Cool!

Lord Jupiter’s internal structure -- and hints at his origin -- continue to be revealed to the folks in Boulder and around the globe, with the newly verified gravity model approach to peering below the dense cloud vortex, out there in the night, on Jupiter. And that, in turn ought to allow us to gain more insight into other gas giant planetary atmospheres -- like those seen on Saturn. . . and Neptune, locally.

And candidly, should offer insights to the exo-planets we are now seeing traverse distant host stars, with our cutting edge next gen space telescopes. Here's the latest, now proven theory -- courtesy of Juno's science packs:

. . .To determine the location and cylindrical nature of the winds, the study’s authors applied a mathematical technique that models gravitational variations and surface elevations of rocky planets like Earth. At Jupiter, the technique can be used to accurately map winds at depth. Using the high-precision Juno data, the authors were able to generate a four-fold increase in the resolution over previous models created with data from NASA’s trailblazing Jovian explorers Voyager and Galileo. . . .

The measurements of the gravity field matched a two-decade-old model that determined Jupiter’s powerful east-west zonal flows extend from the cloud-level white and red zones and belts inward. But the measurements also revealed that rather than extending in every direction like a radiating sphere, the zonal flows go inward, cylindrically, and are oriented along the direction of Jupiter’s rotation axis. How Jupiter’s deep atmospheric winds are structured has been in debated since the 1970s, and the Juno mission has now settled the debate. . . .

Onward. More deep space physics understandings, as a dividend from our NASA committed budgets, over a half century.

And. . . travel well, and travel light, Apollo Commander Frank Borman -- you truly lived an amazing explorer's life, and will be remembered in American space science history -- forever. Onward, with a slightly sadder smile -- after 95 impeccable years. . . this sunny Fall afternoon.

नमस्ते