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NASA's Jupiter Mission Juno Reveals Giant Polar Storms (bbc.com)
NASA's Juno mission to the gas giant Jupiter has reached its halfway mark and has revealed new views of cyclones at the poles. The BBC reports: As it orbits the planet every 53 days - Juno performs a science-gathering dive, speeding from pole to pole. Its sensors take measurements of the composition of the planet, in an effort to decipher how the largest world in our Solar System formed. Mapping the magnetic and gravity fields should also expose Jupiter's structure.
But images from JunoCam -- a camera that was intended to capture images that could be shared with the public -- has already given us some surprising insights. "When we made our first pass over the poles, we knew we were seeing a territory on Jupiter we had never seen before," said Dr Candice Hansen, from the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona. "What we did not expect was that we would see these orderly polygons of cyclones; huge storms - twice the size of Texas."
But images from JunoCam -- a camera that was intended to capture images that could be shared with the public -- has already given us some surprising insights. "When we made our first pass over the poles, we knew we were seeing a territory on Jupiter we had never seen before," said Dr Candice Hansen, from the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona. "What we did not expect was that we would see these orderly polygons of cyclones; huge storms - twice the size of Texas."
What does this even mean? How many Arizonas is that? Are we talking edge to edge laid out, and if so which orientation? There's a damn reason Europe went with the metric system and not the Texas system.
Your comment implies the cost of this Juno mission was somehow wasted money. If talking about waste, start & compare with biggest / most wasteful use of resources. How about... the US defense budget?
Lifetime cost of the Juno mission: in the order of US$ 1,100,000,000. ;-)
Year 2017 US defense budget: in the order of US$ 600,000,000,000. Did I get that number of 0's right, or should I add some more?
So for the cost of 1 year's US defense budget, you could launch >500 Juno sized space missions. (numbers courtesy Wikipedia)
Who profits from this?
Juno: as with all scientific space missions: ultimately, everyone on this planet to some degree. Including the part of the world population that doesn't help foot the bill.
US defense: mostly a small clique of people in the vast military-industrial complex.
Results -
Juno: a better understanding of the universe we all live in. Yes, even if you don't feel or see it, Jupiter is part of that universe. And does/did have effect on mankind (for starters: us being here at all).
US defense: some good, sure. But a lot of it just the US acting like an 800p gor^H^H^H bully that forces other (sovereign) nations into submission. Often at the cost of many human lives.
As for new discoveries: there tends to be a lot of time between science missions that target a similar set of objectives. Like, decades. That means: much better instruments, much more & more detailed data coming out. That in itself is scientific progress - no matter what you make of that data. For humanity as a whole, 'small' missions like Juno are cheap. Especially the unmanned kind.