Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here with a classic podcast episode.
Speaker 1: This one is about the question of whether there's water
Speaker 1: on Jupiter and the history of trying to figure that out.
Speaker 1: Since this episode aired, NASA and its partners have started
Speaker 1: receiving data back from the James Web Space Telescope, including
Speaker 1: some observations of Jupiter that may give us a more
Speaker 1: definitive answer than ever. But while that data is being processed,
Speaker 1: here's what we know for now, Hey brain Stuff, Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogebom Here. Many mysteries hide beneath Jupiter's beautifully chaotic clouds,
Speaker 1: But with the help of some clever astronomical techniques and
Speaker 1: NASA's Juno spacecraft, one of the giant planet's biggest puzzles
Speaker 1: may be closer than ever to being solved. As we know,
Speaker 1: water is the key to life on Earth. Our efforts
Speaker 1: therefore to seek out life on other worlds hinges on
Speaker 1: the detection of this import compound. Though scientists don't think
Speaker 1: that life inhabits Jupiter, finding a Jovian reservoir is one
Speaker 1: of the most pressing issues in planetary science. Locating this
Speaker 1: water would help us understand how the Solar System and
Speaker 1: Jupiter itself evolved. Unfortunately, Jupiter has been notoriously unhelpful at
Speaker 1: revealing any water deep in its thick atmosphere, leaving scientists
Speaker 1: and their models of planetary formation high and dry. Before
Speaker 1: we sent spacecraft to investigate Jupiter, scientists assumed the gas
Speaker 1: giant would contain copious amounts of H two O. The
Speaker 1: logic was simple. Earth is covered in the wet stuff,
Speaker 1: and there's lots of water in the various moons that
Speaker 1: orbit the giant planets. Therefore, Jupiter, the most massive and
Speaker 1: most gravitationally dominant planet in the Solar System, must have
Speaker 1: trapped the lion's share of our Solar System's water as
Speaker 1: it formed billions of years ago. That logic was shattered
Speaker 1: in when NASA's Galileo mission dropped a probe into the
Speaker 1: planet's atmosphere to measure its composition. Much to everyone's surprise,
Speaker 1: there was a punishing lack of water. But the Galileo
Speaker 1: probe may not have detected water simply because it wasn't
Speaker 1: dropped in the right place. It could be as if
Speaker 1: the probe parachuted over a desert on Earth. It's not
Speaker 1: that there's no water on Earth. It's just the deserts
Speaker 1: aren't known for being awash with the stuff. Jupiter's atmosphere
Speaker 1: is dynamic with jet stream storms in a non homogeneous composition.
Speaker 1: The probe could only sample the atmosphere it was traveling
Speaker 1: through in that one location, and that location might have
Speaker 1: been as dry as a desert. The situation changed, however,
Speaker 1: when researchers used the powerful W. M. Keck Observatory and
Speaker 1: NASA Infrared Telescope facility on Hawaii's Mona Kea to stare
Speaker 1: deep into Jupiter's biggest storm, the Great Red Spot. They
Speaker 1: released their water filled news in an August study published
Speaker 1: in the Astrophistical Journal and led by Gordon L. Bulaker
Speaker 1: of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Br Aker said in
Speaker 1: a NASA statement, the moons that orbit Jupiter are mostly
Speaker 1: water ice, so the whole neighborhood has plenty of water.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't the planet, which is this huge gravity well
Speaker 1: where everything falls into it, be water rich too. To investigate,
Speaker 1: Bureaker's team measured the infrared radiation leaking from deep beneath
Speaker 1: the clouds. Specifically, they studied the infrared absorption spectrum of
Speaker 1: a certain type of methane, which is known to exist
Speaker 1: in a vapor throughout the planet. This infrared radiation should
Speaker 1: leak through the clouds unimpeded, but should any water vapor
Speaker 1: clouds be present, this radiation would be blocked. During analysis
Speaker 1: of observations from Jupiter's Great Red Spot, the researchers found
Speaker 1: three distinct cloud layers were blocking this infrared signal from
Speaker 1: passing through the atmosphere, thus agreeing with the theoretical predictions
Speaker 1: for the presence of water rich clouds. They also detected
Speaker 1: large quantities of carbon monoxide, suggesting that there's lots of
Speaker 1: oxygen available in Jupiter's atmosphere to chemically bond with molecular
Speaker 1: hydrogen to form water if the temperature and pressure is
Speaker 1: just right. The next step will be to use these
Speaker 1: data to complement the Juno spacecraft's observations of Jupiter. JUNO
Speaker 1: can make spectroscopic observations even deeper into Jupiter's atmosphere, and
Speaker 1: it will do so for the entire planet, not just
Speaker 1: the Great Red Spot. But should JUNO also detect this
Speaker 1: possible water cloud layer. The techniques developed by Buelreaker's team
Speaker 1: using telescopes on Earth will have been proven effective at
Speaker 1: finding water deep inside Jupiter, thereby solving the gas giants
Speaker 1: watery mystery, and these techniques could then be used to
Speaker 1: probe deep into the atmospheres of other planets like Saturn, Uranus,
Speaker 1: or Neptune without having to send a probe into them.
Speaker 1: NASA named the Juno Mission, by the way, after the
Speaker 1: Roman goddess Juno, who was married to Jupiter and had
Speaker 1: the handy ability to see through clouds. Today's episode is
Speaker 1: based on the article the Great Red Spot may expose
Speaker 1: Jupiter's watery secret on how stuff works dot com, written
Speaker 1: by Ian O'Neill. Brain Stuff is production of I heart
Speaker 1: Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com and
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Klang. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.