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Hot Topic
Solar System
Jupiter
Jupiter System
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Jovian X-ray Vision
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
03/17/05 |
| Astronomers using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton telescope have discovered that observing the giant planet Jupiter may actually give them an insight in to solar activity on the far side of the Sun. Jupiter's x-ray glow is due to x-rays from the Sun being reflected back off the planet's atmosphere. |
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Jupiter's Rare Triple Eclipse
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
11/03/04 |
| Jupiter has four moons roughly the same size as Earth's Moon. The shadows of three of them occasionally sweep simultaneously across Jupiter. Viewing the triple shadows in 2004 was special, because two of the moons were crossing Jupiter's face at the same time as the three shadows. |
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Underneath Ganymede's Ice?
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
08/17/04 |
| The largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, has lumpy mass concentrations underneath its icy shell. The lumpy features appeared by surprise when watching the Galileo spacecraft's flyby and may point to rock features on a ice floor. |
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Io's Lava Lakes Like Early Earth?
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
03/19/04 |
| Jupiters volcanic moon, Io, spews pillars of salt into its atmosphere, at the rate of about two tons per second. The layers of purgatory brew up often enough to make Io by volcanically active body in the solar system. A single volcano on Io may release a hundred times more lava than all earthly counterparts combined. |
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Megawatts to Jupiter?
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
02/13/04 |
| A proposed NASA mission to Jupiter for 2011 --called the Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter--will be the first in a series of interplanetary probes that rely on nuclear electricity. Unlike the Cassini mission slated to orbit Saturn this July, the Jupiter mission would use megawatts to power its instruments and thrusters. |
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Firing Up for Jupiter
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
12/27/03 |
| An ambitious probe in the planning stages for investigating Jupiter's moons passed an important engine test this month. Using an electrical kickstart from what is called an ion engine provides the kind of efficient, but slow impulse, that can back up plans for much larger nuclear power. |
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Finding JIMO
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
12/09/03 |
| As a follow-on to the recently ended Galileo mission to Jupiter, the next goal seems to be investigating its icy moons--Io, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. A subsurface ocean and tidal heating may make possible at least two of the three requirements for life, namely water and energy. |
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Io: Moon On Fire
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
10/26/03 |
| For those wishing to tour another solar system, Jupiter is a close simulation; the Jovian family of moons offers some of the most stunning photo opportunities available. To trace the story of the Jovian family requires a good lens, since the four inner moons were first seen by Galileo's telescope. |
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Galileo's Spyglass
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
09/30/03 |
| Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute examines the revolution that the astronomer Galileo brought to the world by discovering moons around another planet. This changed what otherwise had persisted as a worldview since Aristotle placed Earth in the center of it the universe. |
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The End of Galileo
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| Topic: Jupiter System |
09/22/03 |
| On Sunday afternoon, the Galileo spacecraft crashed into the planet Jupiter. The spacecraft has redefined our understanding of Jupiter, the moons orbiting that gas giant planet, and the possibility of life elsewhere in our solar system. |
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