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July 27, 2016
Jupiter- massive-http://www.woobleweb.com/
Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, gas giant, and subject of the Juno mission, is huge. Huge.
It's so huge, in fact, that it doesn't actually orbit the Sun. Not exactly. With 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, it's big enough that the centre of gravity between Jupiter and the Sun doesn't actually reside inside the Sun – rather, at a point in space just above the Sun's surface.
Here's how that works.
When a small object orbits a big object in space, the less massive one doesn't really travel in a perfect circle around the larger one. Rather, both objects orbit a combined centre of gravity.
In situations we're familiar with – like Earth orbiting the much-larger Sun – the centre of gravity resides so close to the centre of the larger object that the impact of this phenomenon is negligible. The bigger object doesn't seem to move, and the smaller one draws a circle around it.
But reality is always more complicated.
For example: when the International Space Station (ISS) orbits Earth, both Earth and the space station orbit their combined centre of gravity. But that centre of gravity is so absurdly close to the centre of Earth that the planet's motion around the point is impossible to spot – and the ISS follows a near-perfect circle around the whole planet.
The same truth holds when most planets orbit the Sun. The Sun is just so much larger than Earth, Venus, Mercury, or even Saturn that their centres of mass with the Sun all lie deep within the star itself.
Not so with Jupiter.
The gas giant is so big that its centre of mass with the Sun, or barycenter,actually lies 1.07 solar radii from the middle of the Sun — or 7 percent of a Sun-radius above the Sun's surface. Both the Sun and Jupiter orbit around that point in space.
This not-to-scale gif from NASA illustrates the effect:
That is, in essence, how Jupiter and the Sun move through space together – though the distances and sizes are far different. Jupiter is still only a fraction of the Sun's size.
So next time someone asks you for a crazy space fact, you'll know: Jupiter is so massive, it doesn't orbit the Sun.

This article was originally published by Tech Insider.
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July 27, 2016
Jupiter- massive-http://www.woobleweb.com/
Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, gas giant, and subject of the Juno mission, is huge. Huge.
It's so huge, in fact, that it doesn't actually orbit the Sun. Not exactly. With 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, it's big enough that the centre of gravity between Jupiter and the Sun doesn't actually reside inside the Sun – rather, at a point in space just above the Sun's surface.
Here's how that works.
When a small object orbits a big object in space, the less massive one doesn't really travel in a perfect circle around the larger one. Rather, both objects orbit a combined centre of gravity.
In situations we're familiar with – like Earth orbiting the much-larger Sun – the centre of gravity resides so close to the centre of the larger object that the impact of this phenomenon is negligible. The bigger object doesn't seem to move, and the smaller one draws a circle around it.
But reality is always more complicated.
For example: when the International Space Station (ISS) orbits Earth, both Earth and the space station orbit their combined centre of gravity. But that centre of gravity is so absurdly close to the centre of Earth that the planet's motion around the point is impossible to spot – and the ISS follows a near-perfect circle around the whole planet.
The same truth holds when most planets orbit the Sun. The Sun is just so much larger than Earth, Venus, Mercury, or even Saturn that their centres of mass with the Sun all lie deep within the star itself.
Not so with Jupiter.
The gas giant is so big that its centre of mass with the Sun, or barycenter,actually lies 1.07 solar radii from the middle of the Sun — or 7 percent of a Sun-radius above the Sun's surface. Both the Sun and Jupiter orbit around that point in space.
This not-to-scale gif from NASA illustrates the effect:
That is, in essence, how Jupiter and the Sun move through space together – though the distances and sizes are far different. Jupiter is still only a fraction of the Sun's size.
So next time someone asks you for a crazy space fact, you'll know: Jupiter is so massive, it doesn't orbit the Sun.

This article was originally published by Tech Insider.
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July 07, 2016

To infinity... and beyond!


After a five-year, 2.8 billion kilometre (1.7 billion mile) trip across the Solar System, the spacecraft Juno has just achieved "the hardest thing NASA’s ever done" - putting the probe into orbit above Jupiter.
The US $1.1 billion trip at 265,000 kilometre per hour (164,663 mph) to the biggest planet in our Solar System set off from Florida in August 2011. It reached the most critical phase on 4 July, with a 35-minute engine burn, 869 million kilometers (540 million miles) from Earth, to place it in a 53.5-day orbit around the planet.
While the 3.6-tonne (7,054-pound) solar-powered probe is unmanned, it does contain three 4-centimetre (1.5-inch) high Lego figures as part of an educational outreach program to inspire kids around the world about science and technology.
The trio are the 17th-century Italian astronomer and 'father of science' Galileo Galilei, the Roman god of sky and thunder, and king of gods, Jupiter, and his wife Juno (hence the spacecraft’s name).
In 1610, Galileo - his Lego version holds a telescope - made the first detailed observations of Jupiter, discovering its four largest moons.
The planet, 300 times larger than Earth, also has 64 other moons, plus 'temporary' moons - comets captured by Jupiter’s massive gravity.
Jupiter, holding lightning, was a rather naughty deity, who used clouds to hide what he was up to, but his wife Juno was always able to see through them - hence the magnifying glass of discovery in her Lego hand.
Lego made the figures especially for NASA out of space-grade aluminium to survive the trip and the highly radioactive, gaseous planet.
They’ve also done a whole space tie-in with NASA on their website.
Scientists are hoping that by studying Jupiter they’ll better understand how Earth was formed.
The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter 33 times on its mission, skimming to within 5,000 km above the planet’s cloud tops every 11 days, for approximately one year. When it’s all over, they’ll crash Juno into the planet in 2018. Perhaps, one day, human space explorers will find the three Lego people there.
Here’s how things went for NASA today:

This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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July 19, 2015
Conjunctions are exciting to check out in a distinct night time sky especially when the Jupiter is just 6 degrees in the sky. You just have to get outside the house and watch west and there will be Venus and Jupiter visible clearly in the night sky.
On July 18 and 19, the crescent moon will be given company by Venus and Jupiter making it a celestial extravaganza.
The three celestial objects will be seen in a row as if they are in a divine meeting.
These three astronomical bodies, Moon, Venus and Jupiter are the second, third and fourth brightest objects respectively in our solar system after the Sun.
In fact, Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is 77 million km from Earth, and Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun and the solar system’s largest, is 909 million km away.
They have been gradually coming closer to each other in excess of the previous few weeks.
All the three bodies were in a triangle on Friday night and it was visible with the naked eyes. However, the phenomenon can also be watched in the daytime as well but it will vary depending on the location and time zone. They will make an appearance at 6:45 am IST on Sunday, July 19.
The moon will actually pass in front of the Venus on Monday, July 20 at 6:30 am IST, favoring the South Pacific though the rest of the world will see a stunningly close pass.
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