The NASA space probe Juno arrives at Jupiter on the Fourth of July.
The probe will study Jupiter’s atmosphere, magnetic fields, and auroras. The hope is to better understand the planet's origin and evolution.
Boise State's physics department will use telescopes to get a close-up look at Jupiter Monday night as Juno starts orbiting the planet.
Glenn Orton is a senior research scientist at the California-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He’s a member of the Juno science team and says they’ll be looking at the makeup of the planet’s interior.
“I think of it as peeling back the other layer of an orange and looking at the juicy new information on the inside. We’ll be looking at that, in lots of respects, for the very first time,” says Orton.
Orton hopes knowing more about Jupiter will help scientists learn more about gas giants and how our solar system was formed. He says it will be a relatively short mission; radiation from the planet makes it dangerous for the probe to stay too long in orbit around Jupiter.
The public is welcome to watch Boise's fireworks display and then view Jupiter through telescopes on the top floor of BSU’s Brady Garage starting at 10:00 p.m. Monday.
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