VISUAL ARCHIVE / IMAGE STORY
A Jupiter Instrument Looks Beneath Europa
A moon flyby gave Juno’s microwave radiometer a different target.
An instrument designed to peer into Jupiter’s atmosphere became a way of probing Europa’s ice, helping scientists constrain the shell separating space from the ocean below.
THE OBSERVATION
What we can actually see.
During the 2022 Europa encounter, the microwave radiometer sampled emission from the icy shell. NASA reported a regional thickness estimate around 29 kilometers, subject to the instrument’s assumptions and coverage.
THE ILLUSTRATION
What the artwork imagines.
The transparent shell and visible ocean are imagined. Juno did not drill into the ice or measure the entire moon with one look, and the underlying sea remains inferred.
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. A moon flyby gave Juno’s microwave radiometer a different target.
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’s Europa ice measurementOTHER IMAGE STORIES
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