After five years of traveling The Juno probe entered orbit of Jupiter and is ready to explore the largest planet in the solar system. We spoke with Amedeo Balbi , an astrophysicist and author of the book “Where is everybody?” (Rizzoli), a trip caught and fresh “between stars and planets in search of life”
NASA is the “hardest thing ever made”. Is that so?
I do not know if it was really the hardest thing, but it certainly was very difficult. Meanwhile, because Jupiter is quite massive, and maneuver in such a powerful gravitational field is no joke. To date, only another probe, the Galileo has been orbiting around the planet, but at a safe distance, so to speak. Juno is much more closer, until almost touching (relatively speaking) the upper layers of its atmosphere. To enter the orbit in the right way had to make a nice stop, after which the planet’s gravity had accelerated to about 250,000 km / h relative to the Earth, one of the highest speed ever reached by a half man-made. Then there is the extremely hostile environment problem that surrounds Jupiter, both from the point of view of the magnetic field and radiation, and from that of the debris and dust that may damage the probe.
What you are expected from this mission? There will be room for surprises?
There are always surprises when we study nature in a new way, especially if we do not know very object of study, as in the case of Jupiter. It may seem surprising, but what is happening inside the planet we have the so far largely assumed only on the basis of models, and there are many things to be clarified. For example, we do not know if Jupiter has a solid core or not. In addition we would like to better understand the composition of the various gaseous layers of the planet, which will serve to clarify how it is formed. And understand how Jupiter was formed it is important to understand how the solar system was formed. In short, there’s really much to understand.
The probe is at risk rain of radiation generated by the magnetic field of Jupiter?
Yes, the radiation is a problem, but Juno was purpose built to endure. The tools and the most delicate electronic components are shielded by a layer of titanium often more than one centimeter. In addition to being protected by this armor, the orbit probe passing through the poles of the planet, on a path designed to avoid the most intense radiation.
In your book you get to assume the possibility of life on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, “which was slightly less than our Moon, completely covered by ice.” The Juno mission will give some answers to that effect? Help you discover the hidden ocean of Europe or is merely preparatory to other missions that can break the warning of Hal9000 in 2010: Odyssey 2: “All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Do not try to get them.”
No, Juno is designed to study Jupiter. it will take care of its satellites and then, unfortunately, even in Europe. But there are already in preparation missions instead will focus mainly on the moons : Juice, ESA, it should start in the ’20s to study its icy moons, while always in the middle of that decade should be another NASA mission dedicated specifically to own Europe.
There ‘s a lot of Italy in the mission. Two of the nine instruments on board are of Italian manufacture …
fact: the tool that studying the planet’s gravity will try to map his internal structure has as a guide Luciano Iess of the Sapienza University in Rome and was built by Thales Alenia Space Italy, while the instrument that will study the upper atmosphere was manufactured by ‘National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the Selex-Galileo Avionica , and had as angioletta coradini guide, unfortunately passed away in 2011.
Mars, Rosetta, gravitational waves, now Juno to Jupiter … We are seeing a renaissance of space exploration? We went back to the golden decades of the 60s and 70s of the last century?
It is certainly an exciting time for space exploration, and in addition to those named, there are still many other things that boil in a pot – think for example the ExoMars mission, which will arrive on Mars at the end of the year to look for possible traces of microscopic life. So yes, it is a good time to look toward distant horizons, maybe even to put into perspective certain meanness of our little world.
The Scream liberating to NASA: “Welcome to Jupiter”
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