Juno's 2nd Extended Mission

Juno has transformed our view of Jupiter through major discoveries about its interior structure, origin, and evolution; atmospheric dynamics and composition; magnetic dynamo; and polar magnetosphere. The natural evolution of Juno’s polar orbit brings new regions within reach with every close passage to Jupiter, as the inbound equator crossing marches ever closer to the giant planet. The 1^st extended mission began in August 2021 and provided the first close flybys of Io, Europa and Ganymede since the Galileo mission.  The second extended mission (EM2) begins in October 2025 providing opportunities for Juno to probe previously unexplored regions, and to follow up on Juno’s discoveries made during its prime and 1^st extended missions.  The Juno spacecraft and instruments are in excellent health. During EM2, Juno will dive deep within Jupiter's inner radiation belts where the rings and inner moons reside. EM2 provides an opportunity for a thorough investigation of these components and their complex interaction, providing a unique data set to compare with other giant planet ring systems, including the ice giants. The migration of the periapsis northward creates an opportunity to explore in-situ Jupiter's ring-moon system, investigate Jupiter’s northern hemisphere and the unexplored regions of Jupiter's distant southern magnetospheric boundaries. During EM2, Juno’s polar perijoves will provide the opportunity to continue the exploration of Jupiter’s circumpolar cyclones over a wide range of altitudes/depths via imagery, occultations and microwave sounding. Radio science occultations will icharacterize the upper atmosphere to levels as deep as 0.5 bar. EM2 gravity passes over the north polar region will constrain the depth and mass of the polar cyclones and will also be compared to MWR's sounding of the same.  Juno’s 2^nd extended mission proposal is currently being reviewed.  An overview of the new opportunities provided with EM2 will be presented.