🚀 NASA's Juno mission just hit a cosmic milestone by creating the first-ever complete 3D radiation map of Jupiter's system! 🌌
This map is a game-changer, highlighting intense radiation levels around Jupiter—especially near the icy moon Europa 🌍. It even shows how some of Jupiter's smaller moons hanging out near its rings can shake up the radiation environment. Pretty wild, right?
So, how did they pull this off? 🤔 It's all thanks to Juno's super-smart gadgets: the Advanced Stellar Compass (ASC), crafted by the Technical University of Denmark 🇩🇰, and the Stellar Reference Unit, built by Leonardo SpA in Italy 🇮🇹. These tools let scientists peek into radiation levels at different energies all over Jupiter's cosmic neighborhood.
The ASC is especially cool—it has four star cameras mounted on Juno's magnetometer boom. Basically, it helps Juno know which way it's pointing by snapping pics of the stars 🌠. But here's the twist: the data revealed some seriously high levels of mega-energy radiation near Europa's orbit! 😲 Plus, they found that those high-energy electrons are more packed on the side of Europa that's zooming forward compared to its trailing side.
This discovery doesn't just blow our minds; it could also clue us in on the best spots to explore Europa further, maybe even finding places where life could exist under its icy surface! 🧊🔍
Reference(s):
NASA's Juno mission develops first 3D radiation map of Jupiter system
cgtn.com
