Our distant neighbor Jupiter hides secrets that can tell a lot about how the solar system began.
NASA's Juno spacecraft has already reached the orbit of the gas giant, and it is hoped that this project will provide some answers.

In 2022, the European Space Agency plans to launch its own space probe to explore Jupiter's moons. Swedish scientists are participating in the project.

Context

Jupiter made way for the Earth with its movements

Astrobiology Magazine 06/26/2015

Jupiter may have helped shape the Earth

Scientific American 04/02/2015

Pavel Globa: "Above us Jupiter is the planet of kings"

Saturday 01/13/2010 “We are investigating the habitability of icy satellites,” says program manager Jan-Erik Wahlund of Uppsala University.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. It is not surprising that it is called a gas giant: if you add up the mass of all the other planets in the solar system, the mass of Jupiter will still be twice as large.

The planet was named after the most powerful of the gods in the Roman pantheon. From the Earth, it can be seen with the naked eye, so the planet has been known since ancient times, although under different names.

In the course of history, we learned more and more about our huge neighbor. The Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who is called the father of modern astronomy, was one of the first to observe Jupiter.

Galileo was among the first scientists to use a telescope to study the firmament. One day he heard about a Dutch invention called the "magic tube" and in 1609 he built his own telescope.

A year later, in 1610, he made a number of important discoveries. Galileo established the position of stars that were not visible to the naked eye, discovered mountains on the moon, and also discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter.

The satellites were named Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, and they are still called "Galilean satellites" in honor of the discoverer.

Spacecraft in orbit

Today Jupiter is on everyone's lips again. On August 5, 2011, the US space agency NASA sent the Juno satellite to him.

Juno had come a long way and had only one chance to enter the planet's orbit. A little less than a month ago, the spacecraft managed to take the correct course with what has been described as a critical maneuver.

A week later, Juno sent back to Earth the first photographs taken by the onboard Junocam color camera. One of the first blurry images shows Jupiter and three Galilean moons - Europa, Io and Ganymede. As it approaches the gas giant, the probe will be able to take ever sharper images and eventually photograph the planet's surface.

One orbit around Jupiter "Juno" in its current orbit makes 53 days. The device will remain in orbit for 20 months, that is, it will make 37 orbits around the planet.

Of course, besides beautiful photographs, NASA has other goals. The space agency's website says the project's task is to try to figure out how Jupiter came to be. Thus, there will be a chance to find out new details about the origin of our solar system.

Does Jupiter have a core?

There is a theory that the solar system arose as a result of the collapse of a huge cloud of gas and dust, that is, a nebula, about 4.6 billion years ago.

The cloud rotated and cooled until the sun and planets formed from it.

Like the Sun, Jupiter is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. Therefore, scientists believe that this planet originated early and based on material left over from the appearance of the Sun.

But this is just a hypothesis. Astronomers do not yet have an exact answer to the question of how everything really happened. There is an assumption that the planet arose when the gravity of the solid core began to attract material to itself. According to another theory, the emergence of Jupiter caused the collapse of the unstable section of the nebula.

NASA wants an answer to the question of whether Jupiter has a solid core, and scientists will try to figure it out by measuring the volume of water and ammonia in the planet's atmosphere.

Juno will collect data on Jupiter's gravity and magnetic field. This will allow you to calculate the likely mass and structure of the nucleus.

If we can find answers to these questions, it will be possible to draw new conclusions regarding the origin and history of our solar system.

Swedes in Jupiter Exploration

NASA isn't the only one interested in Jupiter. In 2014, the European Space Agency also decided to send a spacecraft there.

Of course, the project arose as a result of thorough scientific work. The decision to launch the program was made only after four years of detailed research on the topic.

Scientists are currently involved in planning and designing the spacecraft and its equipment. The device will be called Juice (short for Jupiter icy moons explorer). Representatives of almost all European countries, as well as Japan and the USA, are participating in the project.

Juice will hit the road no earlier than 2022. It will be equipped with ten measuring devices, two of which will be produced in Sweden. The first, PEP (Particle Enviroment Package), is being built at the Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna, the second, RPWI (Radio Plasma Wave Investigation), at a similar institute in Uppsala.

The project is headed by Jan-Erik Walund. Now his team is busy creating one of several prototypes that will have to pass a series of tests before scientists construct the final version of the instrument in 2019.

“The device will measure electric and magnetic fields as well as electrically charged gas,” explains the project manager.

The main goal is to measure around the surfaces of Europa's satellites, Callisto and Ganymede, centered on Ganymede. The spacecraft will enter orbit a satellite in the outer solar system, emphasizes Jan-Erik Walund.

In other words, NASA will focus on exploring the planet, while the European Space Organization will focus on its satellites.
Europeans also want to find answers to the question of how the solar system originated.

“We can say that Jupiter is a miniature solar system. At first it was very hot, like a red dwarf, but it went out without becoming a star. In addition, Jupiter has more than 60 satellites, ”says Jan-Erik Walund.

There could be life

Jupiter's moons are interesting for several reasons.

It is assumed that oceans are hidden under the ice crust on the surface of large celestial bodies. Whether this is true or not, it will become clear after the magnetic and electric fields are measured.

There is hope that it will be possible to get closer to the answer to the question whether life can exist on any of the satellites. Of course, we are not talking about aliens from a Hollywood movie, but about unicellular organisms.

“Actually, what we are looking for on the ice satellites is not life, but habitability. I don’t think we will find living organisms, for that we would have to cut through the ice, ”Walund comments.

But Jupiter is not in the neighboring courtyard, so a long flight through space is ahead. If Juice hits the road in 2022 as planned, it will be eight years before it is estimated to arrive at its destination in 2030. And in another five years, it will be disposed of on Ganymede.

"Exciting. To fly to Jupiter - this happens only once in a lifetime, ”says Jan-Erik Walund.

The American automatic interplanetary station Juno made it known that its equipment withstood the Earth-Jupiter flight ...

Here I will put on three wings and closer to you

NASA's Juno (Juno, Juno) spacecraft, launched 5 years ago, safely reached Jupiter and on July 5, 2016 entered the orbit of the giant planet - the fifth planet from the Sun. Now it flies there, spreading three solar panels - the largest of those that have ever been equipped with a spacecraft. Behind these batteries is another record - the longest use of solar energy with simultaneous flight stabilization.

Jupiter possesses the most powerful radiation belts, permeated with hard radiation. Scientists feared that it would damage the station's measuring equipment, even if hidden from sin in a special titanium shell. But it did. The operability of five scientific instruments has already been confirmed. The camera also works - JunoCam, installed on board. It is akin to the one that the Curiosity rover is equipped with. The first images taken by JunoCam from orbit have already been transmitted and received on 10 July. NASA is enthusiastically publishing them on its website, announcing that Jupiter was photographed from a distance of 4 million 300 thousand kilometers. The next session - with clearer pictures - is scheduled for August 27, when Juno flies closer to the planet.

As a precaution, Juno's orbit passes through the poles of the giant planet, where the radiation is not so intense. Moreover, it is strongly elongated. So, flying far away, the station will "rest" from the destructive environment.

The current orbit is intermediate. While on it, Juno makes one revolution in about 53 days. Further, having already begun scientific work, the apparatus will enter a 14-day orbit. And according to the plan, he should make 37 turns, again moving away, then approaching Jupiter. The trajectory of some orbits will pass one and a half thousand kilometers from the surface of the clouds.

The main task of the mission Juno's task is to study the gravitational and magnetic field of Jupiter, its atmosphere.

Scott Bolton, the mission's principal investigator, has promised that NASA will release the first scientific data collected by the station on September 1.

Juno will finish its flight in 2017 - scientists plan to drown the station in the atmosphere of Jupiter, collecting some additional data along the way. Juno will either burn or be crushed.

The reprisal against the station is needed so that, left unattended, it does not crash on any of the many satellites of Jupiter and pollute it with something terrestrial. After all, there are suspicions that life may exist on one or even several large satellites - and some are larger than our Moon. At least in the form of microbes. Scientists would like someday to find the "aborigines" and not those who arrived from Juno from Earth.

WHAT IS HIDDEN UNDER COVER OF CLOUDS

Juno is a name from Roman mythology. That was the name of the wife of Jupiter - the main god. In Greek mythology, these divine spouses are Zeus and Hera. Jupiter - aka Zeus - was known as an incredible lecher, entered into numerous intimate relationships with both goddesses and nymphs and even with simple earthly women. In order to hide his adventures from his wife, Jupiter covered himself with dense clouds - he was disgraceful under them. But Juno - she Hera learned to see through the cloudy layer. And she watched her unfaithful husband.

So NASA scientists believe that their Juno will also see through the densest clouds. Without any mysticism. It now has a Microwave Radiometer (MWR), which allows it to look 550 kilometers into Jupiter's atmosphere.

The real Jupiter is also full of secrets that I would like to reveal along the way.

1. Thunder and lightning

The so-called Great Red Spot (BKP) looks very mysterious - a giant atmospheric vortex - the largest hurricane in the solar system, in which several planets such as Earth would easily have drowned. The hurricane has not abated for at least 350 years - since it was first noticed. Moreover, all these years the vortex funnel has been in the same place. Rotates at a speed of about 500 kilometers per hour. But for some reason it gradually decreases.

Jupiter, by the way, is rich in other hurricanes, which sometimes line up in bizarre "installations".

For example, astronomer Damian Peach captured in the planet's atmosphere an object very similar to Mickey Mouse, the famous character in Disney cartoons.

As the scientists explained, Mickey Mouse is huge, stretching for tens of thousands of kilometers. Formed by three hurricanes raging in the atmosphere of the gas giant. "Ears" are anticyclones - zones with high pressure. "Muzzle" - cyclone - low pressure zone.

Jupiter is generally stormy. If you look closely, it is all strewn with spots of cyclones and anticyclones. The reason for this atmospheric anomaly is not clear. In addition, giant lightning flashes on Jupiter - thousands of times longer than on Earth. Probably, the thunder is thundering so that you can go deaf.

2. Fireworks in honor of Juno

At the poles of Jupiter, fiery rings of polar lights sparkle. They are very stable - they blaze for a long time and brightly. In telescopes, astronomers see flashes from the Earth. And in 2016 - June 30 - when Juno flew to the target, Jupiter flashed the strongest aurora in the entire history of their observations.

“It looks like Jupiter has started launching fireworks in honor of Juno’s arrival,” joked Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester.

3. Fire rings

The infrared images show that there are powerful heat sources under the cloud layer. Some look like stripes, others like spots. Due to some mysterious processes, Jupiter generates energy - it emits 60 percent more than it receives from the Sun.

It is possible that Jupiter is a failed star. And maybe even extinct, which is not excluded by some hotheads.

4. Radio broadcast

Jupiter is broadcasting. Figuratively speaking, of course. Nothing sensible - just some sporadic bursts at frequencies of 5 to 43 MHz. But they are the most powerful in the solar system after the radio waves that the sun itself emits.

5. X-ray machine

In 2000, data obtained with the Chandra orbiting telescope demonstrated that Jupiter has sources of pulsed X-rays. They were called large x-ray spots. The nature of the spots is not clear.

6. Like a top

Jupiter rotates on its axis faster than all other planets, making one revolution in about 10 hours - rapidly for such an impressive mass. 10 hours is how long a day lasts on the planet.

Due to its rapid rotation, Jupiter "inflates" in the equatorial region. Here its radius is 71,492 kilometers. The polar radius is less - 66854 kilometers.

7. What's inside him

And the most important secret. With the help of devices installed on Juno, scientists propose to test a very controversial hypothesis that inside the planet, considered a gas giant, there is a solid core - maybe rocky, or maybe from an exotic material - metallic hydrogen.

AT THIS TIME

Is there another planet inside Jupiter?

Calculations and computer simulations carried out by the Chinese astronomer Shu Lin L from Peking University in China and his American colleague Douglas Lin from the University of California, Santa Cruz showed: when there were many more planets in the solar system than there are now. Among them were the so-called "super-earths" - planets, the mass of which is many times greater than the earth.

"Super-Earths" are necessarily present in other star systems. They were the first to be discovered with telescopes in other worlds. But in ours - there is no such variety. Where have the massive neighbors gone?

Simulation gave an answer to this question as well. It turned out that the "super-earths" collided with gas giants and became their nuclei. For example, Jupiter once swallowed a planet with a mass of 10 Earths. This is the minimum.

According to the researchers, collisions with bodies of a larger or smaller size have survived all the planets of the solar system. Including our Earth, from which something massive broke off the Moon.

BTW

Sometimes Jupiter stares at us. Like a cyclops

On April 21, 2014, astronomers, observing Jupiter, saw that he was looking at them too. Literally. He looks with a huge eye that formed on the surface of the giant planet. Such an amazing, almost mystical phenomenon was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, which was aimed at the Great Red Spot - the most famous "landmark" of Jupiter. I followed the changes that are taking place there. Photographed. In one of the pictures, Jupiter appeared as a kind of Cyclops.

The mystery of the phenomenon was quickly revealed. As NASA experts explained, Jupiter "goggled" his eye not meaningfully, but as a result of the fact that a shadow from Ganymede, one of the planet's many satellites, fell on the Great Red Spot. Thus, the "pupil" appeared in the "eye". And the illusion of a gaze arose.

REFERENCE

The Great Red Spot (GRS) was discovered by Giovanni Cassini in 1665. Until recently, before the Voyager spacecraft transmitted high-quality images of Jupiter, it was believed that the BKP - this something solid - rises above the planet and sticks out of its depths. But it turned out that the spot is an atmospheric formation - an anticyclone, and in fact a hurricane of unimaginable size. It stretches for about 30 thousand kilometers in length and 12 in width.

In shape, the BKP is a poured eye, which only lacked the pupil (see above).

The BKP is the largest atmospheric vortex in the solar system. Several such planets as our Earth could easily sink in it. The wind speed inside the vortex reaches 500 kilometers per hour. This hurricane is the longest. It has existed at least since it was discovered. That is, it has not stopped for almost 350 years. But it is changing. If you believe the observations of 100 years ago, then the BCP was approximately 2 times larger.

Ganymede is a satellite of Jupiter, the largest satellite in the solar system. Discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. That is, before the BKP. Ganymede has a diameter of 5268 kilometers. It weighs 2 times more than our Moon, which has a diameter of 3,474 kilometers.

BUT WHAT IF

We ourselves will not be from Jupiter?

There is, albeit a crazy, but very popular and beautiful hypothesis that the gas giant was once a star. And humanity even caught this miracle. Indeed, many peoples in myths remember that they saw two Suns in the sky.

More scientific basis: in the universe, most stars - binaries - are arranged in pairs. And loners, like our Sun, on the contrary, are rare.

Jupiter, with its many satellites, resembles a miniature solar system. Very large "planets" revolve around it. Including those covered with a thick layer of ice. For example, Europe, where the same NASA is going to look for life. Search - in the ocean, which is almost certainly preserved under the ice.

And who knows, if Jupiter was once a star, then Europe could not be a frozen world, but quite alive. Fantastic, of course, but what if there were intelligent beings? Maybe our ancestors?

The gravity on Europa is much smaller than on Earth. But here's what's surprising: we are just poorly adapted to the current force of gravity. We earn from it varicose veins, inflammation of the joints. And if we fall from two or three meters, we break bones. Our skin - with the exception of the Negro - can hardly bear the scorching rays of the Great Sun - it comes to burns. The eyes are also not well adjusted - most people wear sunglasses. But the Small Sun - a sparing Jupiter in the form of some kind of red dwarf would fit just right. By the way, there are red dwarfs in our galaxy, which are only 30 percent larger than Jupiter.

Suddenly we are not really local ...

In ancient Roman mythology, Jupiter is identified with the Greek Zeus. He is often referred to as "Father God" or "Father of the Gods." Jupiter was the son of Saturn, the brother of Neptune and the sister of Juno, who was also his wife. In turn, the planet Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.

Ironically, a spacecraft named Juno was sent to Jupiter for "matchmaking". And while the probe has just to reveal many of the secrets of its "constricted", we will consider several already known facts about this gas giant.

Jupiter could have become a star

In 1610, Galileo discovered Jupiter and its four largest moons: Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede, which are now commonly called the Galilean moons. This was the first observation of a space object orbiting a planet. Previously, observations were carried out only for the Moon orbiting the Earth. Later, thanks to this very observation, the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus gave weight to his theory that the Earth is not the center of the Universe. This is how the heliocentric model of the world appeared.

As the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter has a mass 2 times that of all other planets in the solar system. Jupiter's atmosphere is more like that of a star than a planet, and is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Scientists agree that if the reserves of these elements were 80 times more, then Jupiter would turn into a real star. And with four main moons and many (67 in total) smaller satellites, Jupiter itself is almost a miniature copy of its own solar system. This planet is so huge that it would take over 1,300 Earth-sized planets to fill the volume of this gas giant.

Jupiter's amazing coloration consists of light and dark belt zones, which, in turn, are caused by constant powerful winds blowing from east to west at a speed of 650 km per hour. Areas with light clouds in the upper atmosphere contain frozen, crystallized ammonia particles. Darker clouds contain various chemical elements. These climatic features are constantly changing and never linger for long intervals.

In addition to the fact that it rains very often on Jupiter from real diamonds, another famous feature of this gas giant is its huge red spot. This spot is a giant counter-clockwise hurricane. The size of this hurricane is almost three times the Earth's diameter. The wind speed in the center of the hurricane reaches 450 km per hour. The giant red spot is constantly changing in size, sometimes growing and becoming even brighter, then decreasing and becoming dimmer.

Amazing magnetic field

Jupiter's magnetic field is nearly 20,000 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field. Jupiter can rightfully be considered the king of the magnetic fields of our planetary system. The planet is surrounded by an incredible field of electrically charged particles, which bombard other planets of the solar system without stopping. At the same time, the level of radiation near Jupiter is up to 1,000 times higher than the lethal level for humans. The radiation density is so strong that it can damage even well-protected spacecraft.

Jupiter's magnetosphere has a length from 1,000,000 to 3,000,000 km towards the Sun and up to 1 billion km towards the outer boundaries of the system.

Jupiter is the king of rotation

It only takes Jupiter about 10 hours to complete a revolution on its axis. The day on Jupiter ranges from 9 hours 56 minutes at both poles to 9 hours 50 minutes in the equatorial zone of the gas giant. As a result of this feature, the planet's equatorial zone is 7 percent wider than the polar ones.

As a gas giant, Jupiter does not rotate as a single solid spherical object, such as the Earth. Instead, the planet rotates slightly faster in the equatorial zone and slightly slower in the polar ones. The total rotation speed is about 50,000 km per hour, which is 27 times faster than the Earth's rotation speed.

Largest source of radio waves

Another feature of Jupiter that boggles the mind is how powerful radio waves it emits. Jupiter's radio noise even affects shortwave antennas here on Earth. Radio waves not audible to the human ear can acquire very bizarre audio signals due to their terrestrial radio equipment picking up.

Most often, these radio emissions are produced as a result of the instability of the plasma field in the magnetosphere of the gas giant. Often, these noises cause a stir among ufologists, who believe that they have caught signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. Most astrophysicists theorize that the ion gases above Jupiter and its magnetic fields sometimes behave like very powerful radio lasers, producing radiation so dense that at times Jupiter's radio signals overlap the Sun's shortwave radio signals. Scientists believe that such a special power of radio emission is somehow related to the volcanic moon Io.

NASA's aerospace agency was very surprised when the Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered three rings around Jupiter's equator in 1979. These rings are much fainter than those of Saturn and therefore cannot be detected by ground-based equipment.

The main ring is flat and is about 30 km thick and about 6,000 km wide. The inner ring - even more rarefied and often referred to as a halo - is about 20,000 km thick. The halo of this inner ring practically reaches the outer limits of the planet's atmosphere. In this case, both rings are composed of tiny dark particles.

The third ring is even more transparent than the other two and is called the "spider's ring". It consists mainly of dust accumulating around the four moons of Jupiter: Adrastea, Metis, Amalthea and Thebes. The radius of the spider web reaches about 130,000 km. Planetologists believe that the rings of Jupiter, like Saturn, could have formed as a result of collisions of numerous space objects, such as asteroids and comets.

Protector of the planets

Since Jupiter is the second largest (first place belongs to the Sun) space objects in the solar system, its gravitational forces most likely participated in the final formation of our system and, probably, even allowed life to appear on our planet.

According to the study, Jupiter could once have pulled Uranus and Neptune to where they are in the system. In a study published in the journal Science, it is said that Jupiter, with the participation of Saturn, attracted enough material at the dawn of the solar system to form the planets of the inner boundary.

In addition, scientists are confident that the gas giant is a kind of shield against asteroids and comets, reflecting them from other planets. Jupiter's gravitational field affects many asteroids and changes their orbits. Thanks to this, many of these objects do not fall on planets, including our Earth. These asteroids are called "Trojan asteroids". Three of them, the largest, are known under the names of Hector, Achilles and Agamemnon and are named in honor of the heroes of Homer's Iliad, which describes the events of the Trojan War.

The size of the core of Jupiter and Earth is the same

Scientists are firmly convinced that the inner core of Jupiter is 10 times smaller than the entire planet Earth. At the same time, there is an assumption that liquid metallic hydrogen accounts for up to 80-90 percent of the core diameter. Considering that the diameter of the Earth is about 13,000 km, then the diameter of the Jupiter core should be about 1,300 km. And this, in turn, puts it on a par with the radius of the inner solid core of the Earth, which is also about 1.300 km.

Jupiter's atmosphere. A chemist's dream or nightmare?

Jupiter's atmospheric composition includes 89.2 percent molecular hydrogen and 10.2 percent helium. The remaining percentages account for stocks of ammonia, deuterium, methane, ethane, water, particles of ammonia ice, and particles of ammonium sulfide. In general: the explosive mixture is clearly unsuitable for human life.

Since Jupiter's magnetic field is 20,000 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field, the gas giant most likely has a very dense inner core of unknown composition, covered with a thick outer layer of liquid metallic hydrogen, rich in helium. And all this is "wrapped" in an atmosphere, mainly consisting of molecular hydrogen. Well, just a true gas giant.

Calisto - the long-suffering companion

Callisto, Jupiter's second largest moon

Another interesting feature of Jupiter is its moon called Calisto. Calisto is the farthest of the four Galilean satellites. It takes one Earth week to complete a revolution around Jupiter. Since its orbit lies outside the gas giant's radiation belt, Calisto suffers less from tidal forces than other Galilean moons. But since Kilisto is a tidal-blocked satellite, like our Moon, for example, one of its sides is always facing Jupiter.

Calisto has a diameter of 5,000 km, which is roughly the size of the planet Mercury. After Ganymede and Titan, Calisto is the third largest satellite in the solar system (our Moon is fifth in this list, and Io is in fourth). The surface temperature of Calisto is at minus 139 degrees Celsius.
Calisto was discovered by the great astronomer Galileo Galilei and actually deprived him of his peaceful life. Calisto's discovery helped to strengthen faith in his heliocentric theory and added fuel to the fire of the astronomer's already blazing conflict with the Catholic Church.

... No wonder they called it the giant planet. Its mass is more than two-thirds of the mass of all planets in the solar system, and no matter how offensive it may be, the "grains of sand", including our Earth, account for only one percent of the total mass.

Gloomy, mysterious Jupiter, wrapped in an impenetrable veil of poisonous clouds. But before talking about its riddles, a few numbers. You can't do without them. So, it is known: the volume of Jupiter is 1300 times greater than the volume of the Earth; the mass of Jupiter is 318 times greater than the mass of the Earth. 1300 and 318. Comparison of these figures shows that the substance in Jupiter is located more freely. Its density is much less than the density of our planet and only one and a half times more than the density of water. This is partly true. But…

Jupiter's mass, it turns out, is not quite evenly distributed. The giant planet, like our Earth, consists of the lithosphere - a solid core, hydrosphere and, finally, the atmosphere. Moreover, the ratio of these three spheres in our country and on Jupiter is completely different. The volume of the Earth's lithosphere is almost equal to the entire volume of the planet - 99.5 percent. The solid core of Jupiter is only one thirteenth of its volume visible through a telescope. The rest is divided roughly equally by hydro and atmosphere. So Jupiter turns out to be a "gas giant".

These two upper shells of Jupiter - gaseous and liquid - are, according to some scientists, the abode of life. When a dispute arises on which of the planets life is most likely possible, our satellite, the Moon, is usually immediately swept aside. Mercury is too close to the Sun and is incandescent, the Moon is airless, its temperature fluctuations are too great. ? Perhaps. Although it is almost absent on it, although it is cold there for protein forms of life, some will say, why not the most primitive vegetation on Mars?

Well, what about Jupiter? - you ask hesitantly.
Here many specialists will wave their hands.
- Impossible! After all, everything there is not like on Earth. Jupiter's atmosphere is very poisonous and thick. It does not transmit light and heat. And what is life in the gloom and centigrade cold ?! And besides, the incessant hurricanes and the huge attraction of the giant planet. Not! No way! ..

And yet, although it brings to Jupiter twenty-five times less heat than to the Earth, although the atmosphere of Jupiter consists of three-quarters, and a quarter of helium and contains abundant admixtures of ammonia and methane, although the planet's surface is covered with a layer of frozen ammonia of thousands of kilometers , "Some forms of life on Jupiter are possible" - say some astronomers.

Is it really that cold on Jupiter? Indeed, little solar heat reaches Jupiter. But its atmosphere can keep this warmth. It absorbs more than half of the sunlight. And let the rays of the Sun not reach the surface of Jupiter in the form of direct light - they penetrate there in the form of heat. Moreover, this heat is not reflected by the surface of the planet, it is not lost. Ammonia and methane in Jupiter's atmosphere keep it from escaping. Therefore, it is possible that at the bottom of this huge "" it is as warm as on the surface of the Earth! And it is possible that Jupiter is the only giant planet that has a hydrosphere.

So the ocean of Jupiter. The deepest, boundless ocean, which is half a million times larger than our World Ocean. And above him the atmosphere is heavy, thick as soup. An atmosphere similar to the one that, according to current views, surrounded our planet when life was just being born on it. Ammonia, methane, water, dissolved salts are the building blocks for creating organic compounds. There is an abundance of this material in the ocean of Jupiter. But life ... For it to arise, it is necessary to set this material in motion. You need energy.

Everyone who has seen pictures of Jupiter taken with a telescope noticed parallel stripes on the flattened circle of the planet. These bands consist of molecular fragments that behave very actively. It is the ultraviolet rays of the sun that break molecules. And of course, air currents carry some of these fragments of molecules deep into the atmosphere, to the surface of the ocean. Giving up their energy, molecular fragments react with simple molecules and form more complex ones. This is one of the ways life arises.

But even if the energy of the Sun, the energy of ultraviolet rays is not enough to stir up life in the ocean of Jupiter, one should not forget about two more sources of energy. The first is lightning. To match the Jupiter scale, powerful, long-lasting, they are continuously discharged, with difficulty stirring the thick "soup" of the atmosphere, giving rise to terrible tornadoes and violent storms. The second source of energy is natural radioactivity.

So why doesn't life really arise on Jupiter, if the temperature there is suitable, if there is a mass of raw materials for the construction of organic compounds, if, finally, there is energy that can push this raw material on the path of transforming the simpler into the more complex?

But storms, hurricanes - what about them? Take it easy. They cannot interfere with life in the depths of the ocean. Already at a depth of several hundred meters, their violent fury will be felt only as a barely perceptible ocean current.

Huge? This is not a hindrance to life either. After all, its effect is almost completely neutralized by buoyancy. The lack of oxygen cannot confuse us either. And here on Earth life originated and developed when there was no gaseous oxygen in its atmosphere. Even now, bacteria live on Earth that do well without it.

But even if there are living beings on Jupiter, their life, unfortunately, is completely isolated. Being in the depths of the ocean, they, at best, would feel only a barely noticeable thermal radiation that gets to them from the outside, from the Sun. The path to the universe for the creatures inhabiting Jupiter, even if they have a mind similar to the mind of man, is cut off forever. It is inconceivable to find a way to get out of the depths of the ocean, break through the boundless poisonous atmosphere and settle on one of the satellites in order to glimpse the Sun, stars, planets. These are the mysteries of Jupiter, the giant planet.

P. S. What else are British scientists talking about: that sooner or later, but humanity will be able to conquer other planets of our solar system, including Jupiter. And just imagine that one day you can throw a video on an iPhone, recorded on Jupiter or some planet, and it will be as commonplace as it sounds so fantastic in our time.

In modern times, planetary scientists are confident that we will be able to detect life on the satellite Europa (Jupiter's satellite) rather than on Mars. This cosmic body has a lot of unsolved mysteries. Today it is known that under the thick ice crust of Europa there is a liquid ocean, quite suitable for the origin of life, warm and relatively safe.

Very often, articles appear on the Internet that living creatures similar to our fish and mammals live under the icy surface of Europe. Sometimes such theories are supported by photographs of dolphins we know. Of course, it would be nice for us to meet familiar mammals on other planets, but if you think from a scientific point of view, then most likely they will not be in the ocean of a satellite. No one denies that life can be present there, but it is most likely to have its own form, special and unique.

Some general information

One of the four giant satellites located near the planet Jupiter is called Europa. In total, this planet has sixteen satellites, but most of them do not deserve special attention, since they are relatively small. Europa's orbit has an elongated shape, so it periodically approaches its planet, and then moves away from it. During the approach, the gravity of the huge Jupiter acts on Europa. Thus, Europe contracts and expands with constant periodicity. This heats up its inner ocean, making it habitable for a variety of microorganisms.

Planetologists and astrophysicists are sure that in the central part of Europe (the moon of Jupiter) there is a core covered with rocks. Behind it is an ocean with liquid water, the depth of which reaches 100 kilometers. The surface layer of Europe is ice, the thickness of which is equal to 10-30 km. The temperature on the surface of the Jupiter satellite is equal to -160⁰ Celsius.

Because of the incredibly deep ocean, covered with a thick layer of ice, the surface of the Jupiter satellite is considered the smoothest possible in our planetary system. Examining the images of Europe, you can see many kilometers of stripes covering the ice surface, as well as ridges, bulges and various concave areas. These "irregularities" are direct evidence of the presence of water under the ice of the Jupiter moon.

Planetologists call the most interesting phenomenon in Europe the darkened lines that literally encircle the satellite up and down. The width of these formations can be up to twenty kilometers. Planetologists believe that these are traces of fractures in the crust, through which liquid made its way to the surface. They explain the color of the stripes by the fact that the products of the vital activity of the underwater inhabitants of Europe, which, most likely, are bacteria and other microorganisms, could enter into the reaction with ice.

Can life develop in Jupiter Europe

The sun's ultraviolet rays "process" the surface of the Jupiter satellite regularly. They melt the ice, splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen. The lightest hydrogen evaporates almost instantly, while the heavier oxygen lingers for some time on the surface of Europa. Through the cracks and cracks in the crust, which were mentioned above, oxygen can penetrate into the ocean of the Jupiter satellite. Thus, there is liquid water inside Europa, which regularly mixes with oxygen, and heat is constantly coming from the bowels of this Jupiter neighbor, heating its ocean.

D. Berne, a famous planetary scientist, says the following about the possibility of life in the ocean of Europe:

For decades, we have believed that three factors are necessary for the formation and development of life - water, light and atmosphere. But at the bottom of the sea, for example, the last two conditions are missing. Despite this, life exists there, and it is quite normal. Thus, the last two conditions for the formation of life can be dropped. In the ocean of Europa (Jupiter's satellite), alien life may well exist, similar to our tubular worms and molluscs, which perfectly exist on the sea and ocean floor.

T. Gold, who also works as a planetary scientist and is interested in alien life, states:

The most tenacious creatures on our planet are microorganisms. They are the ones who rule the world. If someone can exist on other planets, then it is they - various microbes. There are ideal conditions for them in the ocean of Europe.

When will the secret of Europe be revealed?

NASA has begun developing its latest Clipper project to study Jupiter's neighbor. The budget for this project was estimated at $ 2 billion. This project was planned to be implemented in the 2020s, but so far it has been frozen due to the crisis. In addition, the ESA agency drew attention to Jupiter and its satellites, whose representatives plan to launch vehicles to the aforementioned planet in 2025-30.