Juno Mission

If you want to try this extra-credit assignment, you'll be taking a deep dive into the
website of a robotic spacecraft mission to Jupiter, called Juno:

Artists' concept of the Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Juno spacecraft was launched in 2011, and entered orbit around Jupiter in 2016.
Many of the scientists who are involved with Juno are based at an organization called
SWRI - the Southwest Research Institute

(Links to an external site.)

. SWRI has put together a very detailed website called Mission Juno

(Links to an external site.)

If you explore that website, you'll see that most of the content was written before the
spacecraft arrived. The questions for this assignment will be based on that content. The
most important part of the website is a section called The Story. Navigating it can be a
little tricky, but don't worry - each question will give you a link to the right section of the
site.

Questions 1-15 are mostly multiple-choice. Each of those questions will give you a link
to one of the webpages within "The Story". It'll be up to you to dig around on that page
you've been sent to, to find the information to answer the question. Each of these
questions will be worth 1.5 points, if you get it right.

Question 16 will ask you to write a short answer in your own words. For this, you'll need
to explore the pages within "The Story" to find the relevant information. (Pro Tip: As
you're doing Q 1-15, make a mental note of any information concerning how Jupiter has
been important for the Earth during the history of our solar system.) Maximum possible
points for this question will be 5 points.

For this question, go to the Interior subsection (of the Jupiter section) of The Story

(Links to an external site.)

, and scroll down to the picture of Jupiter that has clickable "hotspots" on it.

If it turns out that Jupiter doesn't have a solid heavy-element core, what might have
happened to it? (Note: This assumes it had one to begin with, which is different from
what the condensed-cloud theory for Jupiter's formation predicts.)

Group of answer choices

Tidal forces from Jupiter's moons might have caused the core to be ejected from
Jupiter, forming one of the terrestrial planets.
The heavy-element core might have eroded away inside Jupiter's hot, dense liquid
interior.
The core might have been torn apart into tiny solid grains by Jupiter's magnetic field.
When Jupiter temporarily migrated near the Sun about 2 billion years ago, the core
might have been pulled out by the Sun's gravity.
For this question, go to the Origin section of The Story

(Links to an external site.)

, and scroll down to the picture of Jupiter that has clickable "hotspots" on it.

Earth's atmosphere isn't made of the same stuff as the rest of the planet, so studying
our atmosphere wouldn't reveal the composition of the rest of the planet. At Jupiter,
however, we can learn about the interior of the planet by studying its atmosphere. Why
is this?

Group of answer choices

Astronomers in the 19th century saw Jupiter undergo an immense turbulent "mixing
event", so we know it's all the same stuff from atmosphere to core.
Jupiter is thought to be "well mixed", so the atmosphere is made of the same kinds of
atoms as the rest of the planet.
Because Jupiter is a terrestrial planet with a solid surface, it's easy to determine its
composition, even with an atmosphere in the way.
The atmosphere of Jupiter is completely transparent, so we can look down through the
atmosphere and see the deep interior and core at visible-light wavelengths.
For this question, go to the Origin section of The Story

(Links to an external site.)

, and scroll down to the picture of Jupiter that has clickable "hotspots" on it.

The Juno scientists are on a quest to measure the amount of a substance in Jupiter's
atmosphere. If they succeed, it will help them decide between two different theories
about Jupiter's origin. What's different between the two models?

Group of answer choices

How many billions of years later was Jupiter's formation, relative to the other planets
Whether or not Jupiter came from another solar system
They make very different estimates of Jupiter's mass.
The distance from the Sun at which Jupiter formed
For this question, go to the Magnetosphere sub-section (of the Jupiter section) of The
Story

(Links to an external site.)

, and scroll down to the picture of Jupiter (and its magnetic field) that has clickable
"hotspots" on it.

Jupiter's magnetic field is one of the largest structures in the solar system. It has a "tail"
that points away from the Sun. How far does this magnetotail stretch?

Group of answer choices

Almost as far from Jupiter as the orbit of Jupiter's moon Io

It extends to the Earth's orbit.
About halfway to the nearest star
As far as the orbit of Saturn
For this question, go to the Mission section of The Story

Links to an external site.

, and scroll down to the picture of Jupiter that has clickable "hotspots" on it.

When the Galileo mission probed Jupiter's atmosphere in the 1990s, it revealed a
"puzzle". What was puzzling about the measurements of Jupiter's atmospheric
composition?

Group of answer choices

The atmosphere of Jupiter contained a number of chemical elements that have never
been seen elsewhere in the solar system, and aren't even on the periodic table of the
elements.
The abundance of heavy chemical elements was similar to what we'd expect for a
planet orbiting a star other than our Sun.
There was a very great abundance of water and oxygen in Jupiter's atmosphere, but the
atmosphere was missing the heavy chemical elements that should have come along
with the water and oxygen.
There were more heavy elements than expected, but less of the water and oxygen that
should have come along with those heavy elements.
For this question, go to the Jupiter section of The Story

(Links to an external site.)

, and scroll down to the picture of Jupiter that has clickable "hotspots" on it.

Jupiter's magnetic field accelerates electrically charged particles, many of which are
ionized atoms. Where do these particles come from in the first place?

Group of answer choices

Jupiter's most distant large moon, Callisto

Volcanic gases from Jupiter's moon Io
Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede
Jupiter's icy moon Europa

For this question, go to the Origin section of The Story

(Links to an external site.)

, and scroll down to the picture of Jupiter that has clickable "hotspots" on it.

Juno's project scientists want to measure the amount of something in Jupiter's

atmosphere. What is the substance whose abundance they're so eager to measure?

Group of answer choices

Iron
Carbon monoxide ice
Sulfur dioxide
Water
For this question, watch the short video in the Origin section of The Story.

(Links to an external site.)

When our solar system formed, a cloud of gas and dust collapsed to form the Sun and
planets. What happened to most of the gas and dust in that cloud?

Group of answer choices

Most of the gas and dust in the cloud stayed in a disk, far from the cloud's center, and
formed the planets.
Most of the cloud's gas and dust was expelled from the cloud into interstellar space.
Most of the gas and dust in the cloud broke away to form a new cloud, which created
the Alpha Centauri solar system.
Most of the gas and dust in the cloud fell to the cloud's center, forming the Sun.

For this question, watch the short video in the Origin section of The Story.

(Links to an external site.)

When our solar system began forming, a cloud of gas and dust collapsed into a
spinning disk. What caused that to happen?

Group of answer choices

Our galaxy collided with another galaxy.

The Sun already existed, and it passed through the cloud of gas and dust.
A large comet passed through our region of the galaxy.
A star in our galaxy exploded nearby.
As you've explored SWRI's Mission Juno website

(Links to an external site.)

, you may have come across some descriptions of Jupiter's influence on the rest of the
solar system. It turns out that Jupiter's powerful gravity can have significant effects on
other objects that orbit the Sun, like asteroids, comets, and small planets.

For this question, explain the following things. If your answer is well-organized, you can
probably do a good job in several sentences or a few short paragraphs.

1. Viewed from our perspective, as life forms on one of the inner planets of our
solar system, how has Jupiter been good for our planet and the evolution of
life on it? Or, put another way, if our solar system didn't have Jupiter, located
where it is, why might circumstances be more difficult for the Earth and for
life?
2. Also answer this related question: What if the Earth was in a different solar
system, like the other ones we've discovered so far. And what if this solar
system had one or more Jupiter-sized planets in it? Would that necessarily be
a good thing, the way Jupiter is in our solar system? Or is there a "catch" that
could make things even worse (and maybe much worse) than having no
Jupiter at all?

Important Note: Make sure to write your answer in your own words!

In the modern era of online search engines and easy copy-pasting between
programs, it can be very tempting to copy-paste some text into your answer. A
lot of people who have grown up in the internet age aren't even aware this
isn't okay. It's an easy problem to avoid, though - just take a little while to try
and write your own answer, in your own words, based on what you've found
on the Mission Juno website.
Due to its immense gravity and the great distance that separates it from the sun, Jupiter acts on
the orbit of our planet, helping it to always stay at an adequate distance from the sun and saving
it from great climatic variations that would make it difficult or impossible for life to develop.

In addition, Jupiter's large gravitational sphere of influence causes most of the asteroids and
smaller bodies in its vicinity to be captured by the giant, or else ejected into the remote regions
of the Oort cloud, greatly reducing the risk of impacts on our planet allowing life to develop and
evolve to date.

Recent discoveries regarding gas giant exoplanets reveal that they can migrate throughout the
system, endangering all planets and minor bodies in their path, which could be engulfed by the
giant or expelled beyond the borders of the system.

On the other hand, the combined gravitational influence of two or more gas giants could cause
instabilities in the orbit of our planet, which would result in large climatic variations on earth that
would make the development of life as we know it impossible.

Throughout its history, Jupiter's gravity has been responsible for expelling a large amount of
material towards the inner regions of the solar system, being responsible for countless collisions
that occurred in the youth of our planet. If the earth were in a system with more than one
Jupiter, the frequency of these occasional impacts could increase so much that it would make it
impossible for life to flourish on today's scale.