The crucial role of HST during the NASA Juno mission: a "Juno initiative"

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of HST's UV observations in complementing NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter, aiming to maximize scientific insights into Jupiter's auroras during the spacecraft's one-year mission.

Contribution

It advocates for a dedicated 'Juno initiative' to secure sufficient HST observation time, enhancing the mission's scientific return through UV aurora data.

Findings

HST can provide critical UV aurora data during Juno's mission.

Limited data transmission from Juno makes HST observations essential.

A proposed initiative aims to allocate more HST orbits to support Juno.

Abstract

In 2016, the NASA Juno spacecraft will initiate its one-year mission around Jupiter and become the first probe to explore the polar regions of Jupiter. The HST UV instruments (STIS and ACS) can greatly contribute to the success of the Juno mission by providing key complementary views of Jupiter's UV aurora from Earth orbit. Juno carries an ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) and an infrared spectral mapper (JIRAM) that will obtain high-resolution spectral images providing the auroral counterpart to Juno's in situ particles and fields measurements with the plasma JADE and JEDI particle detectors. The Juno mission will be the first opportunity to measure simultaneously the energetic particles at high latitude and the auroral emissions they produce. Following programmatic and technical limitations, the amount of UVS data transmitted to Earth will be severely restricted. Therefore, it is of extreme importance that HST captures as much additional information as possible on Jupiter's UV aurora during the one-year life of the Juno mission. This white paper is a plea for a "Juno initiative" that will ensure that a sufficient number of orbits is allocated to this unique solar system mission.