We’d like to remind you that one person’s interference can sometimes be someone else’s signal. In new research published in JGR: Planets and led by Heidi Becker, researchers use the star camera on the Juno spacecraft to look for high-energy ions. This camera is normally used to navigate the spacecraft by the stars and is highly shielded to prevent the typical high-energy particles in and around Jupiter from interfering with steering. 

Highly shielded is not the same thing as completely shielded, however, and 118 different high-energy particles have struck the camera and left a trail or a blotch of overexposed pixels. As Juno orbits Jupiter from the equator to the pole and back again, it sees more of these particles as it passes magnetic latitudes of 31-46 degrees at a distance of 1.12-1.41 Jupiter radii. Juno is the first mission to explore this region. According to the paper: The ions are moving at close to light speed and may be composed of a combination of elements as light as helium or as heavy as sulfur. These are the highest energy particles detected by Juno. If encountered in great numbers, such ions are capable of causing spacecraft computer errors as well as damage to spacecraft electronics. Knowledge of the locations of these ion zones is important for the safe design of future missions to Jupiter and for understanding how radiation belts form around giant planets.

More Information

Juno Detects Jupiter’s Highest-Energy Ions (Eos)

“High Latitude Zones of GeV Heavy Ions at the Inner Edge of Jupiter’s Relativistic Electron Belt,” Heidi N. Becker et al., 2021 May 10, JGR Planets