Public to Choose Jupiter Picture Sites for NASA Juno

[Josh IN SPACE]

Hey everybody! I tried looking through the forums for discussion on this but I didn't have any luck locating any threads. If I've missed something, my apologies, perhaps the thread can be merged.

The link below goes into greater depth, but the gist is that we can vote on areas of Jupiter we'd like to see more observations of as Juno goes round and round the gassy planet...

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JunoCam will begin taking pictures as the spacecraft approaches Jupiter's north pole. Two hours later, the imaging will conclude as the spacecraft completes its close flyby, departing from below the gas giant's south pole. Juno is currently on its fourth orbit around Jupiter. It takes 53 days for Juno to complete one orbit.

"The pictures JunoCam can take depict a narrow swath of territory the spacecraft flies over, so the points of interest imaged can provide a great amount of detail," said Hansen. "They play a vital role in helping the Juno science team establish what is going on in Jupiter's atmosphere at any moment. We are looking forward to seeing what people from outside the science team think is important."

More info:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/2017/01/19/public-to-choose-jupiter-picture-sites-for-nasa-juno

Current list of options for the first round of voting:

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/voting?current

Anybody already have some ideas of places you'd like to take a closer look at?

Personally I'm intrigued by "White Spot Z."

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MOST STORMS IN THE NORTH EQUATORIAL BELT USUALLY LAST A YEAR OR SO BEFORE DISSIPATING. HOWEVER, WHITE SPOT Z HAS PERSISTED IN THIS AREA SINCE 1997. WE SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT IT TO SEE IF THERE'S SOMETHING UNIQUE ABOUT WHITE SPOT Z OR IF ITS LONG LIFESPAN IS JUST A FLUKE.

 

[Emperor of the Titan Squid]

I can't wait to see if there are "Cloud Monsters!"

[Josh IN SPACE]

The votes are in! And hey, some of the locations were close enough to some of the winners that they'll get some observations as well! 

TURBULENCE 4.464°, 282.708°	WHITE SPOT Z (Hooray! ) 14.328°, 265.356°	DARK SPOT IN TURBULANCE 14.328°, 255.492°	OVAL BA -32.67°, 321.192°
BAND TRANSITION 13.392°, 278.028°	JOVIAN ANTARTICA -81.072°, 280.368°	THE WONDERFUL SOUTH POLE -72.144°, 299.16°	OUTBREAK! -11.808°, 281.412°
STRUCTURE01 -13.752°, 296.496°	THE BIG RED STRIPE V2 22.698°, 274.248°	HOTSPOT 4.752°, 270.756°

More info on the winners at: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/voting?id=2

Also, absolutely STUNNING image posted on their site 2/2/17. Image has been supersampled, enhanced and sharpened.

PJ01, #6163

Have a good weekend!

[James Kerman]

Juno has captured images of a volcanic plume on IO.

Image credits: Southwest Research Institute
 

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Light from the plumes and fires of Io on Earth’s darkest night

Dec. 31, 2018 — A team of space scientists has captured new images of a volcanic plume on Jupiter’s moon Io during the Juno mission’s 17th flyby of the gas giant. On Dec. 21, during winter solstice, four of Juno’s cameras captured images of the Jovian moon Io, the most volcanic body in our solar system. JunoCam, the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) and the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVS) observed Io for over an hour, providing a glimpse of the moon’s polar regions as well as evidence of an active eruption.

https://www.swri.org/press-release/light-from-volcanoes-io-juno-jupiter-moon

 

[Josh IN SPACE]

Whoa, that's groovy. Sure would be nice to get an orbiter for Io for more shots of those volcanoes.