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The Source: From San Antonio To Jupiter

NASA
Hubble Telescope's Image of Jupiter's aurora

Last night, the Juno Probe executed a series of maneuvers and burns to put it into orbit of the massive planet Jupiter. The insertion was captured live at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mission Control Center in Pasadena. You can watch it below.

Jupiter holds the promise of some fundamental questions about the history of our solar system. The Juno mission will gain valuable insights about the secretive planet, which is bathed in harmful radiation and thick atmospheres. San Antonio's Southwest Research Institute is going to help them collect this data through its JADE experiment and its UVS experiments with technology built in the city.  

The UVS experiment will explore Jupiter's polar magnetosphere and aurora. The Hubble Telescope recently released images of the aurora [pictured above] on Jupiter, which are bigger than the entire planet of Earth.

Two 53-day orbits will be done with numerous equipment checks before the science fun can get underway.

Guest:

  • Dr. Randy Gladstone, program director for the Space Science & Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute. He is lead investigator for the UVS experiment
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Paul Flahive can be reached at Paul@tpr.org