Recent findings from Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit
- 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States of America (heidi.n.becker@jpl.nasa.gov)
- 2Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, United States of America (cjhansen@psi.edu)
- 3Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, United States of America (ravine@msss.com)
- 4Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, United States of America (scott.bolton@swri.edu)
Juno enters its Extended Mission with its low-light sensitive Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) navigation camera poised to explore the Jovian system under novel illumination conditions. During the Prime Mission, high resolution SRU images of Jupiter’s dark side led to the discovery of “shallow lightning,” discharges originating from high altitude ammonia-water storms (above the 2 bar level) where it is too cold for liquid water to exist. Unique SRU images of Jupiter’s faint dust ring have been captured from rare vantage points, including from locations inside the ring looking out. And during Juno’s 34th orbit, the SRU acquired a high resolution (< 1 km/pixel), high illumination angle (>79 degrees) image of Ganymede’s dark side in a region of Xibalba Sulcus illuminated solely by Jupiter-shine. This softly lit image reveals numerous small craters and surface features which are unresolved in the prior Voyager imagery used in the USGS map. This presentation will highlight the recent science findings of Juno’s SRU.
The JPL authors’ copyright for this abstract is held by the California Institute of Technology. Government Sponsorship acknowledged.
How to cite: Becker, H., Florence, M., Brennan, M., Guillaume, A., Hansen, C., Ravine, M., Bolton, S., Arballo, J., and Alexander, J.: Recent findings from Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-5297, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-5297, 2022.
