Posted on 01/30/2023 11:09:16 AM PST by Red Badger
Partial view of Jupiter as seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft. Stormy swirls are visible in muted shades of blue and blush pink.
NASA's Juno spacecraft used its JunoCam to capture this view of Jupiter's southern hemisphere on Jan. 22 after the camera returned to normal operation. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
If you see a glorious new view of Jupiter or its fascinating moons, you can probably thank NASA's Juno spacecraft for the imagery. Juno's JunoCam has been delivering stunning looks at the swirling gas giant planet since its arrival there in 2016. But JunoCam now has a mysterious problem.
In a statement on Friday, NASA said JunoCam didn't acquire all the images it had planned to during a flyby of Jupiter on Jan. 22. "Data received from the spacecraft indicates that the camera experienced an issue similar to one that occurred on its previous close pass of the gas giant last month, when the team saw an anomalous temperature rise after the camera was powered on in preparation for the flyby," NASA said.
The first four images out of 90 captured on that earlier flyby were degraded, but subsequent images were fine. The issue worsened on the most recent flyby, persisting for 23 hours and leaving 214 images unusable. As it had before, the camera recovered and eventually captured 44 usable images.
The Juno team is now in analysis mode. "The mission team is evaluating JunoCam engineering data acquired during the two recent flybys -- the 47th and 48th of the mission -- and is investigating the root cause of the anomaly and mitigation strategies," NASA said.
JunoCam was included in the mission for public engagement purposes. NASA makes the raw images available to anyone for processing. The camera has shown us the intricacies of Jupiter's stormy cloud formations and captured glorious close-ups of some of Jupiter's many moons.
Juno's next pass of Jupiter is scheduled for March 1. NASA has a good track record of troubleshooting glitches on its distant space missions. Here's hoping JunoCam recovers fully and continues to wow space fans with its unique perspective on Jupiter.
Any guesses?.........................
My guess:
ALIENS..................
Diversity Shopping for equipment ?
Of course it’s aliens.
The term “Aliens” is insensitive and only serves the oppressive Patriarchy.
Instead use the term “undocumented extraterrestrials”.
Is there nothing Diversity cannot accomplish?
My guess is cold. Nothing works right in the cold.
It seems to work better after it had a chance to warm up.
Juno is still ticked off over her husband’s many affairs.
So did NASA ignore the message on the camera screen: ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA.
ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.
USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE.
? j/k
Funnily enough, the opposite is the case for the instruments on the Webb. They have to be truly cold before they can properly image things.
A visible light camera/telescope, included in the payload to facilitate education and public outreach; later re-purposed to study the dynamics of Jupiter's clouds, particularly those at the poles.[86]
It was anticipated that it would operate through only eight orbits of Jupiter ending in September 2017 [87] due to the planet's damaging radiation and magnetic field,[78] but as of November 2022 (46 orbits), JunoCam remains operational.[88]
Apparently. If you read "2061: Odyssey Three", that is.
ALIENS..................
My first thought as well.
I thought they armored up that space probe to withstand all that jovial radiation!
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