In August 2024, ESA’s Jupiter ICy satellite probe (JUICE) made history with its daring Moon-to-Earth flight and double-gravity assisted maneuver. When the spacecraft passed the moon and the home planet, NASA’s Jupiter’s energetic neutrons and ions The (JENI) instrument aboard JUICE has captured the clearest images yet of Earth’s radiation belts, belts of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetosphere.
The center of this infographic shows the clearest image yet of a cloud of charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, and the inset shows high-energy images detected along JUICE’s flight path. Measurements of ions and electrons are shown. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Josh Diaz.
“The moment we saw the clear new image, the whole room erupted in high-fives,” said Dr. Matina Goukiuridou, JENI deputy director at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
“It was clear that we had captured the giant ring of hot plasma surrounding Earth in unprecedented detail, and this result has sparked excitement about what’s to come on Jupiter.”
Unlike traditional cameras that rely on light, JENI uses special sensors to capture high-energy neutral atoms emitted by charged particles that interact with hydrogen gas in the widespread atmosphere surrounding Earth. Masu.
The JENI instrument is the latest generation of this type of camera and builds on the success of similar instruments in NASA’s Cassini mission, which revealed the magnetospheres of Saturn and Jupiter.
August 19th, JENI and its companion particle measuring instrument Jupiter’s energetic electrons (JoEE) made the most of his brief 30-minute encounter with the moon.
As JUICE zoomed just 750 km (465 miles) above the lunar surface, the instrument collected data about the space environment and its interactions with our closest celestial companion star.
Scientists expect this interaction to be magnified and observed on Jupiter’s moons as the gas giant’s radiation-rich magnetosphere passes over them.
On August 20, JUICE entered Earth’s magnetosphere, passing approximately 60,000 km (37,000 miles) over the Pacific Ocean. There, the instruments experienced for the first time the harsh environment that awaits them on Jupiter.
As JoEE and JENI raced through the magnetic tail, they encountered the dense, low-energy plasma typical of the region before plunging into the heart of the radiation belt.
There, instruments measured the millions of degrees of plasma surrounding Earth to investigate the secrets of plasma heating, which is known to drive dramatic phenomena in planetary magnetospheres.
“We couldn’t have expected a better flyby,” said Dr. Pontus Brandt, principal investigator for JoEE and JENI at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
“The wealth of data we have obtained from our deep dive into the magnetosphere is amazing. JENI’s image of the entire system that we just flew was simply the best.”
“This is a powerful combination to leverage in the Jupiter system.”
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This article has been adapted from the original release by NASA.
Source: www.sci.news
