Jupiter's Gravity Field Halfway Through the Juno Mission
Daniele Durante, Marzia Parisi, Daniele Serra, Marco Zannoni, Virginia Notaro, P. Racioppa, Dustin Buccino, Giacomo Lari, Luis Gomez Casajus, L. Iess, W. M. Folkner, Giacomo Tommei, Paolo Tortora, S. J. Bolton
Abstract
Abstract The Juno spacecraft reached the mid‐point of its nominal mission in December 2018, after completing 17 perijove passes. Ten of these were dedicated to the determination of the gravity field of the planet, with the aim of constraining its interior structure. We provide an update on Jupiter's gravity field, its tidal response and spin axis motion over time. The analysis of the Doppler data collected during the perijove passes hints to a non‐static and/or non‐axially symmetric field, possibly related to several different physical mechanisms, such as normal modes or localized atmospheric or deeply‐rooted dynamics.