VISUAL ARCHIVE / IMAGE STORY
A Core Known by Its Gravity
Juno’s radio tracking points to a more diffuse interior than a simple hard-center drawing.
Juno’s gravity measurements point toward a large, dilute central region without the clean boundary once expected between Jupiter’s core and the layers above it.
THE OBSERVATION
What we can actually see.
Tiny changes in Juno’s motion constrain Jupiter’s gravity field. Interior models that fit those data can spread heavier material across a broad inner region rather than a sharply bounded compact core.
THE ILLUSTRATION
What the artwork imagines.
The peeled-back clouds and exposed center are an explanatory cutaway. No camera looked into Jupiter, and a gravity fit does not settle which formation event mixed its interior.
FROM THE ILLUSTRATED ARTICLE
The story that inspired it.
The article follows Juno’s extended work across Jupiter, Europa, and Io after its original mission plan. Juno’s radio tracking points to a more diffuse interior than a simple hard-center drawing.
Read The Spacecraft That Was Supposed to Die at Jupiter Is Still Sending Back SecretsCHECK THE RECORD
The image interprets the research below. Follow the original work for the measurements and limits behind the scene.
NASA Juno mission recordOTHER IMAGE STORIES
Juno Still Over Jupiter
A Probe Through the Radiation
The Mark Shared by Titan and Pluto