New Extended Mission Results from Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit
- 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States of America (heidi.n.becker@jpl.nasa.gov)
- 2Cornell University, Department of Astronomy, Ithaca, NY, USA
- 3Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, TX, USA
- 4Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ, USA
- 5University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
- 6NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- 7Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA
Juno’s Extended Mission has expanded the scientific reach of Juno’s low-light Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) star camera to multiple new targets within the Jovian system. Close flybys of the dark sides of Ganymede and Europa (illuminated by Jupiter-shine) have yielded high-resolution SRU surface images that enabled significant improvements to the geomorphologic maps of these icy moons and revealed sites of potential present day surface activity on Europa (providing high quality baselines for Europa Clipper and JUICE). Close flybys of Jupiter’s dark side began in Spring 2023, launching the SRU’s Extended Mission study of lightning in the northern latitudes at resolutions as high as a few kilometers per pixel, and the geometry has also allowed the SRU to image Jupiter’s faint dust ring from vantage points inside the ring. The Mission’s planned flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024 will present additional opportunities for low-light high-resolution SRU surface imaging on the dark side of the volcanic moon. Our presentation will discuss new Extended Mission results from Juno’s SRU.
How to cite: Becker, H. N., Florence, M., Brennan, M., Lunine, J., Schenk, P., Hansen, C., Martos, Y., Bolton, S., and Alexander, J.: New Extended Mission Results from Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit , EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, EGU24-3269, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-3269, 2024.
