Collaborative Research: Mass transport in Jupiter's magnetosphere -- driven by internal or external processes?

The sun emits a stream of particles called the solar wind. The solar system presents a wide variety of obstacles to the solar wind in the form of planetary magnetospheres. Magnetospheres arise from the internal magnetic field of a planet and serve to deflect the solar wind from the surface of the planet.

Mass from the solar wind hits the magnetosphere and is diffused toward the poles and then carried out behind the planet in a structure called the magnetotail. Io is a moon of Jupiter that also provides particles to its magnetosphere from within, and so it can be used to trace the flow of particles from within the magnetosphere. This project will use observations of sulfur and sodium ions to trace out the diffusion of particles from within Jupiter's magnetosphere to better understand the process of diffusion in magnetospheres.

The project will use a dedicated telescope for their observations. The project will also create a children’s book, “The Misfit Telescope” with a companion website and social media stream that use the benefits of diversity in scientific instrumentation as a parable to illustrate the benefits of racial and cultural inclusivity.

The proposed project will study the Io Plasma Torus (IPT) around Jupiter in order to gain insight into the Jovian magnetic field. The project will use the Io Input/Output observatory to make time domain observations of S II and Na lines in the IPT to determine the nature of diffusion of material. IoIO is a small-aperture robotic coronagraph that operates nightly, contemporaneously recording narrow-band images of the IPT ins S II.

Combined with a model of the IPT, the observations will show whether diffusion is driven by mass loading from Io or by activity in the middle Jovian magnetic field. The project's children's book will show the value of both being in the minority and havingg a different point of view and of being in the majority and accepting and respecting the minority point of view. The book will be produced by the Planetary Science Institute's award winning public outreach team.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.