What Jupiter’s magnetic field reveals about the planet’s interior

Abstract:

The present-day interior structure and dynamics of planets provides important constraints on their formation and evolution. Since July 2016, NASA’s Juno Mission has mapped Jupiter with close polar orbital passes to uncover fundamental truths about our largest planet’s interior. While traditional methods such as gravitational analysis have provided transformational discoveries at Jupiter, analysis of the planet’s magnetic field can provide complementary information, since magnetic fields are sensitive to interior properties such as the electrical conductivity, composition, thermal flux, and fluid dynamical behavior. In this presentation, we will highlight key spatial and temporal features of Jupiter’s magnetic field discovered by the Juno Magnetic Field Investigation and discuss their implications for the planet’s interior structure. We’ll discuss the temporal variability of the field related to zonal fluid flow at depth, where the electrical conductivity of the hydrogen envelope is sufficient to drag magnetic field lines; and the possibility of a dilute heavy element core.