My List of the Five Most Important Things We’ve Learned from the Juno Mission
When
3:45 – 4:45 p.m., Sept. 30, 2025
Dr. Jonathan Lunine
Chief Scientist
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Juno spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016 and is completing its first extended mission. My personal list of the five most important things we’ve learned from the Juno mission during its prime and extended missions goes something like this: 1. Jupiter has a fuzzy core. 2. Moist convection really is a dominant feature of Jovian atmospheric dynamics 3. Water seems to be supersolar in abundance, at least down hundreds of bars pressure. 4. Europa has a platypus-shaped crustal melt region. 5. There is an active lava flow at Zal Montes on Io. I will spend eight minutes on each of these.
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