A close-up view of Jupiter's magnetic field from Juno: New insights into the planet's deep interior

摘要

The first results from the Juno mission magnetometer have recently become available. Juno provides us with the closest view of any planetary dynamo, flying to within 1.25 of the radius of the dynamo region, whereas for the Earth, we cannot get closer than 1.83 of the core-mantle boundary radius. We compare the Juno results with those from first principles dynamo simulations of Jupiter's magnetic field. Intense flux patches at Jupiter's surface are found in both the data and the simulations, though the simulations have them mainly at slightly higher latitudes than the observations. We consider the prospects for determining more accurately the location of the top of the metallic hydrogen region and the implications of possible weak flux patches at the poles.