Juno and Cassini Proximal: Giant Steps Towards Understanding Giant Planets

Abstract:

In 2016-17, Juno and Cassini Proximal will provide comparable large advances in our understanding of the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn. Both will provide high accuracy gravity and magnetic field data, while Juno will in addition determine the water abundance deep in the Jovian atmosphere, essential for understanding of giant planet formation and the density of the outer envelope (needed to construct interior models). Although Jupiter and Saturn are both gas giants, they differ in important ways (magnetic field, strength of zonal flows, enrichment in heavy elements, and probably the distribution of helium within). The opportunity to contrast and compare will be invaluable. Juno and Cassini are expected to determine the gravity field to about a part in 10⁹ though with different spatial coverage and with less accurate determination near the poles. The determination of Jupiter’s likely central concentration of heavy elements is particularly challenging because it is only a few percent at most of the total mass and yet important for understanding Jupiter’s formation, which in turn likely determined the architecture of our solar system. This determination will be done from gravity, water determination and magnetic field and also aided by advances in our understanding of material properties. The corresponding determination for Saturn may prove easier (because the heavy element enrichment is a larger fraction of the mass) though complicated by lack of knowledge of water abundance and the need to identify a more precise value for the deep rotation of the planet (difficult for Saturn because of the lack of a measurable magnetic dipole tilt thus far). For both planets, the higher harmonics of gravity will likely be controlled by differential rotation (the zonal flows) and this will tell us their depth, an issue of major interest in the dynamics of these bodies. The magnetic field structure for Jupiter will be determined to higher accuracy than the Earth’s core field (since Jupiter lacks the terrestrial crustal contamination and the dynamo region extends closer to the surface) and this will be invaluable for understanding dynamos and internal dynamics. Comparison to Saturn will perhaps explain the striking difference between the magnetic fields of the two planets.