Juno spacecraft gravity measurements provide evidence for normal modes of Jupiter

Daniele Durante (), Tristan Guillot, Luciano Iess, David J. Stevenson, Christopher R. Mankovich, Steve Markham, Eli Galanti, Yohai Kaspi, Marco Zannoni, Luis Gomez Casajus, Giacomo Lari, Marzia Parisi, Dustin R. Buccino, Ryan S. Park and Scott J. Bolton
Additional contact information
Daniele Durante: Sapienza University of Rome
Tristan Guillot: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS
Luciano Iess: Sapienza University of Rome
David J. Stevenson: California Institute of Technology
Christopher R. Mankovich: California Institute of Technology
Steve Markham: Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS
Eli Galanti: Weizmann Institute of Science
Yohai Kaspi: Weizmann Institute of Science
Marco Zannoni: University of Bologna
Luis Gomez Casajus: University of Bologna
Giacomo Lari: University of Pisa
Marzia Parisi: California Institute of Technology
Dustin R. Buccino: California Institute of Technology
Ryan S. Park: California Institute of Technology
Scott J. Bolton: Southwest Research Institute

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The Juno spacecraft has been collecting data to shed light on the planet’s origin and characterize its interior structure. The onboard gravity science experiment based on X-band and Ka-band dual-frequency Doppler tracking precisely measured Jupiter’s zonal gravitational field. Here, we analyze 22 Juno’s gravity passes to investigate the gravity field. Our analysis provides evidence of new gravity field features, which perturb its otherwise axially symmetric structure with a time-variable component. We show that normal modes of the planet could explain the anomalous signatures present in the Doppler data better than other alternative explanations, such as localized density anomalies and non-axisymmetric components of the static gravity field. We explain Juno data by p-modes having an amplitude spectrum with a peak radial velocity of 10–50 cm/s at 900–1200 μHz (compatible with ground-based observations) and provide upper bounds on lower frequency f-modes (radial velocity smaller than 1 cm/s). The new Juno results could open the possibility of exploring the interior structure of the gas giants through measurements of the time-variable gravity or with onboard instrumentation devoted to the observation of normal modes, which could drive spacecraft operations of future missions.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32299-9

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