Vision of the Future: Exploring Moons and Magnetospheres with Magnetometers

Computer Science – Sound

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5421 Interactions With Particles And Fields, 5430 Interiors (8147), 5440 Magnetic Fields And Magnetism, 6030 Magnetic Fields And Magnetism

Scientific paper

In recent months, planetary scientists have been offered a Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) mission that "will provide unprecedented opportunities for investigation of the Jovian magnetosphere and its interactions with icy surfaces of Galilean moons, putative subsurface oceans of these moons, . . . and the interplanetary solar wind." In the spirit of never saying no to temptation, we will consider some of the questions that can be investigated by JIMO, focusing on problems whose investigation requires fields and particle measurements. The primary targets of the mission are the icy moons, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Galileo measurements provided compelling evidence that all three respond inductively to the time-varying magnetic field of Jupiter and that Ganymede has a stable intrinsic magnetic field. Additional magnetometer measurements from a spacecraft dwelling in a highly inclined orbit around one of these moons will provide invaluable insight into the properties (depth of burial, spatial extent, conductivity) of the conducting layer, a subsurface ocean or a soft ice layer. Such measurements will also provide stronger bounds on the strength of the internal magnetic moments of Callisto and Europa and will identify the properties of the higher order moments of Ganymede. Such constraints are needed for models of the interiors. Two magnetospheres (Jupiter's and Ganymede's) will be probed in new ways. Extensive dwells at roughly fixed radial distance from Jupiter offer opportunities to monitor substorm-like dynamics in a systematic manner and to probe asymmetries of particle and field structure. At Ganymede, a long interval within the magnetosphere will offer opportunities to learn how steady reconnection affects a magnetosphere and to map out the details of the interior and the boundary. It does sound irresistible.

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