NASA has launched the clearest images ever compiled of Earth’s magnetosphere radiation belt. But the spacecraft that completed the feat wasn’t solely designed to element the important atmospheric area shielding the planet from dangerous cosmic rays—it’s in the early levels of a multi-year journey to Jupiter.
Launched on April 14, 2023, the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) probe is presently launched into a visit to the Solar System’s largest planet. Once it lastly arrives in July 2031, JUICE will analyze Jupiter’s magnetosphere whereas additionally gathering info on three of its 79 moons: Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede. Before it will get there, nonetheless, the spacecraft might want to harness a number of planets’ gravitational pulls to correctly regulate its velocity and trajectory. And in response to NASA, engineers wished to make the most of the first shut encounter.
The company detailed each the new images, in addition to historical past’s first-ever lunar-Earth flyby and double gravity help maneuver, in an October 1 announcement. Beginning on August 19, the first of two devices, the Jovian Energetic Electrons (JoEE) instrument, booted up as JUICE handed about 465 miles above the lunar floor. During this 30-minute window, JoEE collected information on how the house atmosphere round the moon exerts an affect on Earth’s solely (everlasting) pure satellite tv for pc. The temporary experiment served as a profitable trial run for what JoEE will hopefully accomplish on a a lot higher scale as soon as it nears Jupiter.
But JUICE wasn’t executed but. On August 20, the spacecraft traveled by way of Earth’s magnetosphere about 37,000 above the Pacific Ocean. In this part, the onboard Jovian Energetic Neutrals and Ions (JENI) instrument constructed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) obtained its personal stress take a look at. JENI utilized its extremely delicate digital camera sensors to document the energized impartial atoms emitted by charged particles as they arrive into contact with Earth’s atmospheric hydrogen fuel.
“I couldn’t have hoped for a better flyby. The richness of the data from our deep-dive through the magnetosphere is astounding,” Pontus Brandt, APL’s principal investigator for JoEE and JENI, mentioned in Tuesday’s announcement. “JENI’s image of the entire system we just flew through was the cherry on top. It’s a powerful combination we will exploit in the Jovian system.”
[Related: Jupiter’s moons are about to get JUICE’d for signs of life.]
Surviving the million-degree plasma clouds enveloping Earth is relatively simple on inanimate house probes. But the potential results of this area—often known as the Van Allen radiation belt—presents severe challenges for any prolonged human journeys to the moon and Mars. According to NASA, the info analyzed from JENI and JoEE will assist higher plan for these and different points surrounding the future of house journey.
As for JUICE, it’s now dashing in the direction of Venus, the place it’ll carry out the same gravitational slingshot in August 2025. Then it’s again to Earth for added passes in September 2026 and January 2029. After all that, it’s lastly onward to Jupiter.