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Featured Speaker: Candice Hansen-Koharcheck

Dr. Candice Hansen-Koharcheck is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. She works on NASA robotic spacecraft missions.  She has a Ph.D. in Planetary Science from UCLA.  She is a member of the flight teams for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Trace Gas Orbiter, the Juno mission in orbit around Jupiter, and the Europa Clipper mission, in development.

Abstract

JunoCam Images of Jupiter:  A New Perspective

The Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter carries a camera on its payload, JunoCam, with the objective of involving the public in a flight mission.  Juno’s unique polar orbit yields polar perspectives unavailable to earth-based observers or previous spacecraft.  With this new perspective one of the first discoveries was that Jupiter’s familiar belt-zone structure gives way to more chaotic storms, with cyclones grouped in polygons around both the north and south poles. In a highly elliptical orbit Juno’s closest approach comes within 3500 km of Jupiter’s cloudtops. Members of the public have been invited to process JunoCam images.  This partnership has resulted in a unique blend of science and art.   Movies from images of a single pole-to-pole pass illuminate the quickly changing geometry and show entire swaths of the planet at unprecedented resolution.  Enhanced color image processing by volunteer citizen scientists brings out subtle detail in the clouds and storms.  Contributions by artists yield products suitable for framing and help us all to appreciate the beauty of the largest planet in our solar system.