Jupiter

Jupiter appeared just in time to retain the elements that would allow life

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Jupiter it’s a big planet and inhospitable, but it is quite possible that we owe life on Earth to it. And, according to a study recently published by scientists at Rice University with the support of NASAthe largest planet in the Solar System acted as a kind of gravitational dam to retain in our neighborhood some of the essential ingredients for the proliferation of living organisms. Phosphorus and nitrogen. These scientists have been based in measuring the ratio between phosphorus and nitrogen (P/N), two elements that are considered essential for life in adequate proportions. Thanks to the analysis of the composition of two different types of meteorites, it was possible to verify that, initially, the appropriate P/N ratio was concentrated in the outer part of the solar system, very far from where the Earth ended up forming. However, when the giant Jupiter was born, its great mass caused a kind of gravitational barrier that prevented the phosphorus from continuing to flow outwards and concentrate inside, in such a way that the Earth had the correct proportion of those pieces that, joined to others, could little by little give rise to the life that our planet houses today. 4.5 billion years of history. The solar system was formed from a large cloud of gas and dust 4.5 billion years ago. First, gas and dust merged to form celestial objects known as planetesimals. These collided with each other, releasing small pieces that over time became the planets and moons that the Solar System houses today. Some, however, did not constitute either of these two objects, but continued to wander in the form of asteroids. Furthermore, if these asteroids impact the Earth They are considered meteoriteswhich can be of two types. On the one hand we have iron meteorites, which are dense, metallic and composed mostly of iron and nickel. Secondly we have the chondrites, which They are rocky. The latter constitute the majority of meteorites that have been recovered on Earth. Some older than others. Today we know that iron meteorites are older than chondrites, since they were formed from a first batch of planetesimals. Chondrites were formed about 2-3 million years later. Taking this into account is very important, since it is precisely what was analyzed to verify how nitrogen and phosphorus were distributed during the dawn of the Solar System. Two other elements come into action. There are two other elements that indicate the origin of meteorites that have impacted the Earth. By analyzing the ratios of nickel and molybdenum isotopes it is possible to know whether the meteorites come from the external or internal part of the Solar System. This is important, since thanks to a series of laboratory experiments and geochemical models it was possible to verify exactly where the meteorites came from and how the levels of phosphorus and nitrogen fluctuated between them. The asteroid belt separates the outer and inner part of the Solar System From outside to inside. We already know that the first phases of the solar system can be studied in iron meteorites and the newer ones in chondrites. We also know that both can come from the external or internal part of the solar system and that this is found out by analyzing the isotopes of nickel and molybdenum. Thus, these scientists saw that the greatest high P/N was initially concentrated in the outer part of the solar system. However, later the tables turned and it began to focus on the internal region, precisely where the Earth was formed. The causes. In its initial phases, the protoplanetary disk in which the planets formed would be very hot and turbulent. These turbulences cause a strong flow of materials outwards. With increasing temperatures, phosphorus condenses inside the disk, as part of a mineral called schreibersite. Then, due to turbulence, it flows to the outside of the disk, which is much colder. The result is a buildup of phosphorus on the outside. As for nitrogen, through oxidation it is freed from some minerals that contain it, but it is very volatile, so it is maintained at lower levels. That means that in the outer layers there is a high P/N ratio. That is, much more phosphorus than nitrogen. Turn of tables. In chondrites it is observed that the tables turn. The elements of life flowed inward. This is partly because the disk is already colder after 3 million years, so there is less turbulence. But it is not enough to explain what these scientists have seen. For this reason, they consider that there is also a great influence from Jupiter. The changes occur more or less from the moment this giant planet formed. The main suspicion is that, being so large, it exerts a great gravitational influence that acts as a barrier preventing the schreibersite from escaping outward. On the other hand, due to the cooling of the disk, the nitrogen-bearing minerals stabilize on the outside. This means that the exterior is enriched in nitrogen, while the interior is impoverished. Added to the retention of internal phosphorus, the result is a high internal P/N ratio, which coincides with what we have on Earth today and, possibly, served as a starting signal for the formation of life. In short, Jupiter gave us a cable. He didn’t give us the ingredients to live, but he did prevent them from escaping our neighborhood. That was the key. Image | Comparison of the size of Jupiter and Earth (NASA) | Solar System (NASA) In Xataka | We have been studying the planets of TRAPPIST-1 for years with great hope. James Webb just knocked it down

As children we were taught that Jupiter revolved around the Sun. Technically we were deceived

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If you are over 30 years old, you probably learned in school that there are nine planets that revolve around the Sun. Then you found out that there were eight, because suddenly Pluto lost its planet category and became a dwarf planet. As if all that were not enough, now I am here to tell you that Jupiter does not revolve around the Sun. Sometimes not even the Earth does. We have been deceived or, rather, we have been told everything quite simplified. It is not the center, but the barycenter. There is a lot of talk about the gravitational attraction that large objects exert on smaller ones. The Sun on the Earth, the Earth on the Moon, the Earth on the people who walk on it… However, smaller objects also exert a certain gravitational pull on larger ones. It is tiny, sometimes imperceptible, but it is there. Therefore, although it is the Sun that dominates the planets of the Solar Systemeach one of them also pulls a little bit of it. This means that the center around which they all rotate is not in the center of the Sun, but at a point slightly separated from it, known as the barycenter. To understand it better. All objects have a center of mass. Broadly speaking, it is the point where we assume that all its mass is concentrated. It does not mean that all the mass is there, but for practical purposes, when doing calculations, it is considered that that is where it is concentrated. Because of how external forces interact with the object, it is right at the center of mass where it is best kept in balance. For example, with an elongated object of homogeneous mass, such as a ruler, the center of mass will be its actual center. If we try to hold the ruler on a finger, the easiest thing to do is to place the finger right under its center. There it stays better in balance. On the other hand, in a hammer, where the heaviest thing is its end, its center of mass is there. In the case of the Solar System, the barycenter is the point where the mass of the system is concentrated. Logically, it is very close to the Sun, since 99.86% of the mass of the system corresponds only to the king star. However, there is influence from other masses, so it is a little far from the solar center. The case of Jupiter. If the Sun is 99.86% of the masses of the Solar System, Jupiter accounts for 70% of the remaining mass. Therefore, individually it is the one that deviates the center of gravity the most. This means that the barycenter around which both Jupiter and the Sun itself move is outside the solar surface. Jupiter does not revolve around the Sun, but around a point that does not even cross the sun. The case of the Earth and the Moon. In the case of the Earth and the Moon there is also a barycenter. The Earth is much larger than the Moon, but the Moon also has mass and exerts some power over it. For this reason, the barycenter is not right at the center of the Earth, but 5,000 kilometers from it. It is still within our planet, but not as centered as we usually think. Jupiter and the Sun are a more extreme case, which is why the center of gravity is completely outside the Sun. The Earth does revolve around the Sun…sometimes. The Earth is much smaller than the Sun. If they were alone in the Solar System, the center of gravity would be practically in the center of the Sun. But of course, they are not alone. All planets act on the point where that center of mass is located. And the thing is, it’s a center of mass that moves as these planets move. Something similar happens to what happens when all the sailors on a ship move around the deck. The ship’s center of mass can change. In the case of the Solar Systemthe most influential sailors are the gas giants. That is, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. When these align, they pull the center of gravity outward and the Earth does not rotate around the Sun. In short, no, the planets do not rotate exactly around the Sun. But we are not going to get fancy explaining it at school either. Don’t feel like you’ve been fooled, they’ve just simplified it for you. Image | NASA | Martin Jediny (Wikimedia Commons) In Xataka | A planet has just disappeared: NASA’s Hubble telescope has captured a violent cosmic event that changes everything

12 light years away, in a giant that humiliates Jupiter

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Although we have all complained at some point about the clouds when they have ruined us a sunny daywithout them the Earth would be much more inhospitable. Therefore, the discovery that the James Webb Space Telescope has just made on an exoplanet located 12 light years from us is really interesting. It’s not ammonia, it’s water. Epsilon Indi Ab is a gas giant even larger than Jupiter, located in a star system made up of two brown dwarfs and a K-type star. This planet is known to have clouds in its atmosphere, just like Jupiter. Given their similarity, one could expect that the clouds of both would have the same composition. Jupiter’s clouds are basically made up of ammonia. However, when some scientists have analyzed the composition of the clouds of Epsilon Indi Ab with the help of James Webb, they have discovered that there is hardly any ammonia in them. In reality they are composed mostly of frozen water, like what we have here on Earth. Hotter than expected. The exoplanet Epsilon Indi Ab is located at a distance from its star similar to that which separates Uranus from our Sun. Uranus is a very very cold planet for obvious reasons. However, Epsilon Indi Ab is much larger and younger, so it still retains much of the heat that came with its formation. Although there is no clear figure, it is believed that it may have an average temperature of 0ºC. That may seem cold to us if it catches us on Earth without shelter, but for a planet so far from its planet it is quite hot. That heat is emitted in the form of infrared radiation and this is where the good stuff begins. James Webb comes into play. The James Webb Space Telescope It has a great ability to detect and measure infrared light. Therefore, it has been with it that these clouds have been analyzed. To do this, the first step was to block the star’s light. If this were not done, it would interfere with the infrared radiation emitted by the planet and could not be analyzed properly. Once this was done, filters that capture 10.6 and 11.3 μm of light were used. Thus, the observation would focus on the planet’s radiation, right in the ranges of interest. Ammonia crystals are known to block 10.6 μm light when it passes through them. If the clouds of our exoplanet were like those of Jupiter, a large blockage would have been observed in this range. But it wasn’t like that. There must have been another substance in them. By studying the 11.3 μm filters and also observing a slight emission of light at 3 and 5 μm, it was concluded that this other substance must be water. The cloud crystals of Epsilon Indi Ab are frozen water, like on Earth. A companion in the rear. Since water clouds are very important for the habitability of a planet, this finding demonstrates James Webb’s ability to analyze one more factor when searching for terrestrial analogues beyond our solar system. The best thing is that, as NASA announced this weekthe Roman Space Telescope, which will be launched in September if all goes well, can join forces with those of the James Webb, providing even more precise results. Perhaps we are facing the perfect team to find that planet we have been searching for for so long. Image | EC Matthews, MPIA / T. Müller, HdA In Xataka | James Webb has been detecting red dots in the universe for years: the only problem is that we don’t know what they are

Since we were children we have been told that Jupiter is enormous, colossal, exaggeratedly large. Turns out not so much.

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There are things that we learn in childhood that accompany us throughout our lives and one of them is to recite the Solar System at once, which has its disadvantages: for those of us who are already old, mentioning Pluto (which It is no longer a planet) either make mistakes when estimating distances interplanetary. Another classic misconception is the size of Jupiter. Data from the Juno mission published in Nature Astronomy They change the shape and size of the colossus of the Solar System. Jupiter is flatter and smaller than we thought. We knew that Jupiter was the largest planet in the Solar System, a gaseous colossus whose mass exceeded that of the rest of the planets combined, which gave it the power to be almost the conductor of the orchestra (with the permission of the Sun) as long as its gravity had a lot of weight. Its large magnetic shield protects its moons from solar radiation, it has iconic clouds and storms in astronomy and its Great Red Spot It exceeds the Earth in size. But there is something wrong with its shape and size. The Context. The missions Voyager and Pioneerdating back to the 1970s, established figures that today we read in science books: that Jupiter has an equatorial radius of 71,492 kilometers and a polar radius of 66,854 kilometers. With this model, the planet was assimilated as a sphere flattened at the poles (oblate spheroid). These dimensions were calculated with just six indirect measurements with profiles of radio occultation. The discovery. Because what Juno has seen shows that the equatorial radius is approximately 8 kilometers smaller and the polar radius is about 24 kilometers smaller than previous missions said. Qualitatively, Jupiter is flatter. The first thing that comes to mind is: How important are eight kilometers on a planet 140,000 kilometers wide? Well scientifically, it has it. In fact, it’s the difference between whether the laws of physics fit or not. Why is it important. Well, because although the difference is comparatively minor, the fact that it is smaller and has a flatter shape has thermodynamic implications. Thus, it suggests a colder atmosphere enriched with heavy elements that better suit what the Galileo probe measured in 1995. Additionally, having accurate geometry is essential to understanding what’s inside and interpreting the gravity data provided by Juno, so we can accurately map how its mass is distributed inside and how hydrogen behaves under extreme pressures. On the other hand, knowing Jupiter better is getting closer to the recipe of how the Earth was formed and going beyond: facilitating the understanding of thousands of other exoplanets giants that we are discovering in the stars. Radio occultation operation diagram. MPRennie Wikipedia Juno’s look. Both Pioneer and Voyager and Juno use radio occultation, that is, they use the same physical principle. The radio occultation technique consists of measuring how a planet’s atmosphere bends and slows down the radio signals of a probe when it is hidden behind it. By analyzing the delay and deviation of these waves from the Earth, the scientific team can precisely calculate the density and pressure and therefore the exact shape of the planet. Of course, from a technological point of view there has been half a century of evolution and it is noticeable in terms of quality due to its multiband operation, precision and repetition. Thus, the probes of the 70s mainly used one radio band while Juno uses two, which allows, among other things, to eliminate noise. Likewise, the original ones were passing missions in front of the planned June orbit, that is, we have gone from having six points to an almost complete map. And finally, ground-based tracking systems are night and day when it comes to measuring changes in frequency and signal arrival time. In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury In Xataka | We knew that there was water on Mars, but not how much. It turns out that 3.37 billion years ago an ocean covered half the planet Cover | NASA Hubble Space Telescope

The James Webb captures a lonely object of the size of Jupiter devouring like a miniature sun

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An international astronomer team has witnessed an extraordinary event: a lonely object, with a mass of just 5 to 10 times that of Jupiter, has entered a violent and prolonged growth burst. Using the combined power of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and him Vary Large Telescope (VLT) of the Southern European Observatory, scientists They have observed How this object, known as Cha J11070768-7626326, drastically increases its brightness and its “food” rhythm, behaving like a miniature star. The importance. This discovery represents the first time that a outbreak of accretion of type “exor”, a phenomenon so far associated with young stars, in a body of planetary mass. The finding is not only a milestone in astronomical observation, but also further blur the borders between what we consider a giant planet and a small star. The mystery. CH 1107-7626 is not a planet in the traditional sense that we all have in our mind. Although it has a mass comparable to that of a gaseous giant, I do not orbit any star and is 620 light years from the earth. Is what is known as an “free planetary mass object” or FFPMO (for its acronym in English). The existence of these lonely bodies raises a fundamental question for astronomy: are giant planets that were expelled from their solar systems, or are smaller stars that can exist in isolation? In order to solve this enigma that astronomers have right now on the table, you have to analyze the gas and dust disc that is around, as well as the way of accumulating the material. The fact that Cha 1107-7626 has an album and feeds on it suggests that its origin is more like that of a star. A cosmic feast. Astronomers observed Cha 1107-7626 in a state of calm in April and May 2025. However, for June, something had changed drastically. The object entered a “indulgence.” This means that its rhythm of ‘food’ began to increase, and in this way it reached a mass increase rate of 10-7 masses of Jupiter per year, the highest ever measured in a planetary mass object. As a result of this frenzy, the objective became between 1.5 and 2 brighter magnitudes in visible light and its optical flow increased between 3 and 6 times. This outbreak remained active for at least two months, since it was still on the end of the observation campaign in August 2026. But the most interesting thing is the speed it has. According to the observations made with the Vray Lark Telescope of the European Observatory, the growth rate is really aggressive, with a record rate of devouring 6,600 million tons per second of dust and gas. Great footprints. Beyond the increase in brightness, the telescopes captured detailed physical changes that reveal the nature of the event. A hydrogen emission line, known as Hα, developed a “double peak” profile with a red displaced absorption. According to the authors, this profile is a “distinctive brand” of the accretion channeled through magnetic fields, a process called “magnetospherical accretion” observed in young stars. But the most surprising finding was the change in the chemistry of the disc. At first, changes in the emission lines of the hydrocarbons molecules that came from the disc during the outbreak were seen. But water vapor also began to appear with a characteristic emission around 6.6 µm. This appeared during the outbreak where there was nothing before and is relevant because it is the first time that chemical changes of this type are observed caused by an increase in accretion. Relevance. This event classifies Cha 1107-7626 as the first “exor” of known planetary mass. Exor outbursts are significant accretion events that are considered key episodes in the early evolution of the stars. They can deeply affect the physical structure and chemical composition of the protoplanetary disk, potentially influencing the early stages of planet formation. Observing this process in such a small object demonstrates that the violent and fundamental mechanisms that the stars build also work at planetary scales. The study of Cha 1107-7626 offers an unprecedented vision of the accretion in the lower mass objects of the universe, providing a new window to understand how both smaller stars and the largest planets are formed. Images | Javier Miranda In Xataka | The most transformer of modern cosmology is just around the corner, according to the hypothesis of these physicists

NASA lost the best camera in Jupiter. A suicide plan has served to recover it successfully

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It seemed the premature end of the mission. The Junocam, the camera that has given us the most spectacular images of Jupiter and his moons, was dying. The relentless radiation of the gaseous giant had degraded the sweat sensor Juno turning his photos into a noise knead and corrupt lines. We had to try. With an overfruit of the moon ío just around the corner, the NASA team played the whole for the whole with a risky maneuver: cook the camera slowly at 600 million kilometers away to try to repair it. Although all at the control center endured breathing, the play worked. And not only that, but the miraculous rescue has sat a precedent for future space missions. Jupiter’s best photographer. Trying it was worth it because Junocam is not any camera. Is responsible for those Jupiter images that seem impressionist paintings and that, curiously, they are prosecuted by a community of fans on Earth. But its location is priced: it is out of titanium “bunker” that protects the main electronics of the Juno probe. NASA engineers knew that their useful life would be limited in one of the most radioactive environments of the solar system. The Calvary of the Junocam. The juno probe, that arrived in Jupiter in July 2016was designed to last until 2018, but its success has led NASA to extend the mission several times. During the first 34 orbits, Junocam worked perfectly. From orbit 47, radiation ravages began to be evident. For orbit 56, in November 2023, the situation was critical. “Almost all the images were corrupt,” admits NASA In a statement. The planet Jupiter and the moon ío photographed by Juno before and after repair A repair to all or nothing. Diagnosing the failure of a component at millions of kilometers is a titanic task. Repairing is a miracle. The clues pointed to a damaged voltage regulator at the camera power supply. With few options, the team resorted to a process called annealing or Annealing. The idea was, in essence, to heat the material and then cool it slowly, with the hope that heat would repair microscopic defects at the atomic level. “The annealing can sometimes alter a material such as silicon at the microscopic level, but we did not know if this would solve the damage,” explains Jacob Shaffner, chamber engineer. Forged on fire. NASA sent a command to Juno so that the only heater in the Junocam raised its temperature at about 25 ° C, much more than usual. The result was a success … temporary. The camera sent sharp images for several orbits. But Jupiter does not forgive. As the probe entered the radiation belts, the damage returned more strongly. “After orbit 55, our images were full of stripes and noise,” says Michael Ravine, head of the instrument. With an upcoming one Near Iro of íoonly one option was left. The only thing they had not tried was to take Junocam heater to the fullest and see if a more extreme recovery would save us. The reward. The first week there were no improvements. The tension in the equipment was maximum. But just a few days after the encounter with ío, the images began to improve dramatically. By the time Juno went to just 1,500 kilometers of the most volcanic moon in the solar system, the camera worked almost as well as the day of its launch. The success of the maneuver allowed Juno to capture very unprecedented and unprecedented images of the northern pole. The images revealed mountains covered with sulfur dioxide frost and Lava rivers that allowed scientists to rebuild geological formations as fascinating as A lava lake with a glass mountain Inside. This achievement is the culmination of an extended mission that has led Juno to explore Jupiter’s great moons. First it was Ganímedes in 2021the largest satellite of the solar system, and then Europe in 2022. I was as follows on the list, and losing the main camera would have been a hard blow. The repair, of course, is not eternal. NASA informs that noise has begun to reappear in orbit 74. But the lesson learned is incalculable. Images | NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSS In Xataka | The NASA Juno probe sends six photos of its passage through ío, the most inhospitable moon of the solar system

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