posted on 2018-09-27, 13:48authored byLiming Li, X. Jiang, R. A. West, P. J. Gierasch, S. Perez-Hoyos, A. Sanchez-Lavega, L. N. Fletcher, J. J. Fortney, B. Knowles, C. C. Porco, K. H. Baines, P. M. Fry, A. Mallama, R. K. Achterberg, A. A. Simon, C. A. Nixon, G. S. Orton, U. A. Dyudina, S. P. Ewald, R. W. Schmude
The radiant energy budget and internal heat are fundamental properties of giant planets, but precise determination of these properties remains a challenge. Here, we report measurements of Jupiter's radiant energy budget and internal heat based on Cassini multi-instrument observations. Our findings reveal that Jupiter's Bond albedo and internal heat, 0.503 ± 0.012 and 7.485 ± 0.160 W m-2 respectively, are significantly larger than 0.343 ± 0.032 and 5.444 ± 0.425 Wm-2, the previous best estimates. The new results help constrain and improve the current evolutionary theories and models for Jupiter. Furthermore, the significant wavelength dependency of Jupiter's albedo implies that the radiant energy budgets and internal heat of the other giant planets in our solar system should be re-examined. Finally, the data sets of Jupiter's characteristics of reflective solar spectral irradiance provide an observational basis for the models of giant exoplanets.
Funding
We gratefully acknowledge the Cassini CIRS, ISS, and VIMS teams for recording the raw data sets. L.L. acknowledges the support from the NASA ROSES Cassini Data Analysis Program and Planetary Data Archiving, Restoration, and Tools Program. X.J. is supported by NASA grants NNX13AC04G, NNX13AK34G, and NNX16AG46G. S.P.-H. and A.S.-L. are supported by MINECO project AYA2015-65041-P (FEDER/EU) and Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT-765-13.
History
Citation
Nature Communications, 2018, 9:3709
Author affiliation
/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and Astronomy
The original data recorded by the three Cassini instruments (CIRS, ISS, and VIMS) are
publicly available and can be freely downloaded from the NASA Planetary Data System
(https://pds.nasa.gov/). The data for the most important scientific results are presented in
the article and the Supplementary Information. The processed data sets and the corresponding
codes of Jupiter’s radiant energy budget are available from L.L. upon reasonable
request.