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Spacecraft Teamwork Ferrets Out Jupiter's Secrets

Posted by timothy on from the working-out-of-the-office dept.

Judebert writes "Working together, Galileo and Cassini found how the solar wind affects Jupiter, shaping its magnetosphere (the biggest object in the solar system with distinct boundaries) and triggering auroras. They also detected the magnetic footprints of Jupiter's moons in the auroras. The Hubble and Chandra also had a role in this display of inter-planetary teamwork. Of course, the big benefit you receive from your tax dollars is all the pretty pictures! New desktop images for me!"

1 of 17 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Thin Oxygen Atmosphere by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 3, Informative
    has lots of tectonic activity


    Tectonics? Not really. If there is, we can't really see evidence of it, with all the volcanoes. Perhaps you mean volcanic activity, which is a (somewhat) different beast?



    Sulphur Volcanoes.


    The more recent evidence (past couple of years) points to silicate volcanism, rather than sulphuric. This is because we have higher resolution IR images of the surface, and the lava is really hot (1200 K, I think). This points to silicates rather than sulphur. Also, Io's topography has long been known to be too varied to be supported by sulphur.



    you'd get a fatal tan


    Nope. Sorry, but I get frustated when people seem to perpetually confuse particle radiation and electromagnetic radiation. The latter can give tans. The former will simply kill you, in high enough dosage. It's particles that are trapped in the Jovian magnetosphere and which pepper the surface of Io.