Jupiter news, articles and features | New Scientist

Skip to content

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2017/07/Exploring_Jupiter t may still be some years away from launch, and over a decade before our Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer reaches the gas giant and its icy moons, but preparations are well under way. This new artist?s impression depicts the final spacecraft design, the construction of which is being overseen by Airbus Defence and Space. The spacecraft?s solar wings form a distinctive cross-shape totalling 97 sq m, the largest ever flown on an interplanetary mission. The size is essential to generate sufficient power ? around 850 W ? for the instruments and spacecraft so far from the Sun. The spacecraft is furnished with a laboratory of instruments that will investigate Jupiter?s turbulent atmosphere and vast magnetosphere, as well as study the planet-sized moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. All three moons are thought to have oceans of liquid water beneath their icy crusts and should provide key clues on the potential for such moons to harbour habitable environments. Juice?s cameras will capture exquisite details of the moon?s features, as well as identify the ices and minerals on their surfaces. Other instruments will sound the subsurface and interior of the moons to better understand the location and nature of their buried oceans. The tenuous atmosphere around the moons will also be explored. The spacecraft will also include booms such as a 10 m-long magnetometer mast (seen towards the bottom of Juice in the artist impression), a 16 m radar antenna (the long boom across the top), and antennas to measure electric and magnetic fields. Ganymede is the only moon in the Solar System to generate its own internal magnetic field, and Juice is well equipped to document its behaviour and explore its interaction with Jupiter?s own magnetosphere. Juice is scheduled for launch in 2022 on a seven-year journey to the Jovian system. Its tour will include a dedicated orbit phase of Jupiter, targeted flybys of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, and finally nine months orbiting Ganymede ? the first time any moon beyond our own has been orbited by a spacecraft. In the artist?s impression, which is not to scale, Ganymede is shown in the foreground, Callisto to the far right, and Europa centre-right. Volcanically active moon Io is also shown, at left. The moons were imaged by NASA?s Galileo spacecraft; Jupiter is seen here with a vivid aurora, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. ESA/ATG medialab; Jupiter: NASA/ESA/J. Nichols (University of Leicester); Ganymede: NASA/JPL; Io: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; Callisto and Europa: NASA/JPL/DLR

Space

How to spot Jupiter's icy moons

Jupiter’s Galilean moons are promising places to look for life. Now is a great time to see them, says Abigail Beall

Regulars

Ariane 5 VA 260 with the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer

Space

JUICE livestream: Watch the launch of ESA’s mission to Jupiter’s moons

News

An artists' impression of ESA's JUICE spacecraft at Jupiter

Space

The JUICE mission to explore Jupiter’s ocean moons is about to launch

News

Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus as seen from the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland

Space

What is the Venus-Jupiter conjunction and how can you view it?

News

Webb NIRCam composite image of Jupiter from three filters ? F360M (red), F212N (yellow-green), and F150W2 (cyan) ? and alignment due to the planet's rotation.

Space

JWST has taken even more beautiful images of Jupiter and its aurora

News

Scott Bolton on his missions to the gas giants of the solar system

Space

Scott Bolton on his missions to the gas giants of the solar system

Features

Jupiter

Space

James Webb Space Telescope team quietly releases a picture of Jupiter

News

Flash seen on Jupiter

Space

Enormous impact flash seen lighting up Jupiter’s atmosphere

News

Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot

Space

Jupiter's Great Red Spot extends far deeper than we realised

News

Mysterious X-ray flares on Jupiter come from magnetic field vibrations

Space

Mysterious X-ray flares on Jupiter come from magnetic field vibrations

Jupiter blasts out strange X-ray flares that have gone unexplained for decades, and the mystery has now been solved by vibrations in the planet’s magnetic field

News

Space

Jupiter's strange atmosphere may have formed in a gigantic shadow

News

Space

NASA mission takes first close-up images of Ganymede in two decades

News

Space

Science with Sam: Are there volcanoes in space?

Video

Space

Juno spacecraft spots meteor fireball lighting up Jupiter’s skies

News