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Jupiter Peering

27 February 2020
Astronomy

From Earth to Mars – and now we have Jupiter. Link sent in by Robert – beginning with www.centauri-dreams.org/2020/02/21/juno-looking-deep-into-jupiters-atmos… … which amounts to more results coming in from the Juno mission. The full paper, for those interested, is at www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1009-3.pdf

Juno peering deep into Jupiter's atmosphere – and in this study the atmosphere is equatorial on Jupiter. Water (or oxygen and hydrogen) make up 0.25 per cent of the molecules in the atmosphere and this contrasts with the Galileo probe back in 1995 which claimed Jupiter was mainly dry – water was less than expected. However. the deeper Galileo penetrated the more water molecules were encountered – but it was not mixing with the atmosphere as theorised. Now Juno has found water content greater than that found by Galileo – although the probe was unable to go too deep and send back a signal. Juno is more advanced. Apparently, Jupiter is still making surprising findings as the new discovery seems to raise a question mark about the accepted view of how planets form.

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