Comments on: NASA Sets Launch Coverage Events for Mission to Jupiter

By: StevoR

StevoR — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:34:40 +0000

Check out the science error in this :

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/nasa-spacecraft-to-circle-jupiter/story-e6frf7lf-1226104344964

otherwise reasonable news article.

Hint : it’s HU-UUUGE! 😉

(Unless they correct and update it. Hmm .. I’ll quote it in case they do but with a line of asterisks heopfully long enough to let those who wish to find it for themselves do so.)

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With its fiery red eye and a mass greater than all the objects in the universe combined, Jupiter is intriguing to astronomers .. [emphasis added.]

Jupiter may be big but it ain’t quite *that* big!

I think they meant “a mass greater than all the other planets in our solar system combined” which would be true.

Jupiter = 318 earth masses vs

Saturn – 95 earth mass (em)
Neptune – 17 em
Ouranos – 14 em
Earth – 1 em
Venus – nearly 1 em
Mars – much less than 1 em (1/4 or so?)
Mercury – much less than 1 em (1/5th or so?)

Pluto, Eris, Ceres, Makemake, Haumea – er, not too much at all em~wise.

The seven other biggest planets combined (being very generous and rounding Venus, Mars and Mercury up to 1 em) = 130 em – or still a very long way behind.

By: Calli Arcale

Calli Arcale — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 19:00:38 +0000

Juno is one of the most exciting missions in recent years. At least to me, but then, I have a thing for gas giants. I saw a video recently that said that the huge, high-efficiency solar panels on Juno will, at 1 AU, generate enough electricity to power a decent-sized house. Once they get out to Jupiter’s orbit, though, they’ll have enough power to light up half a dozen 60W incandescent light bulbs. That’s impressive at 5AU, but it drives home just how difficult this is. It would have been much simpler with an RTG, but those are politically awkward to obtain these days. (New Horizons was the last to get one to date, since obviously solar power does diddly squat at Pluto, where the Sun is reduced to a particularly bright star.)

By: StevoR

StevoR — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 10:04:35 +0000

Cheers! Thanks for this news. 🙂

Look forward to hearing more about this and seeing the launch.

I’d really love to see a mission launched to land on – and go under the icy crust of Europa where there just might be life but this will do nicely for now.