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JPL

JPL

The Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in La Cañada Flintridge, near Pasadena, California, USA, builds and operates unmanned spacecraft for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). JPL-run projects include the Galileo Jupiter mission and the Mars rovers, including the 1997 Mars Pathfinder and the twin 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers. To date, JPL has sent unmanned missions to every planet except Pluto. In addition, JPL has also done extensive mapping missions of the Earth. JPL also manages the world-wide Deep Space Network, with facilities in California's Mojave Desert, in Spain near Madrid and in Australia near Canberra. Almost all of the 177 acre (0.7 km²) JPL campus is actually located in the city of La Cañada Flintridge, California, but the JPL main gate and several buildings are in Pasadena, so it maintains a Pasadena address (4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109). There are approximately 5,000 full-time employees, and typically a few thousand additional contractors work there on any given day. There are also some college student interns and co-op students. The lab has an open house once a year on a Saturday in May, when the public is invited to tour the facilities and see live demonstrations of JPL science and technology. More limited private tours are also available throughout the year if scheduled well in advance. Thousands of schoolchildren from around Southern California and elsewhere visit the lab every year.

History

JPL dates back to the 1930s, when Caltech professor Theodore von Kármán began running rocket propulsion experiments on the site. JPL was co-founded with rocket scientist Jack Parsons, which has led some to affectionately refer to it as the "Jack Parsons Lab." (Despite its name, JPL had not been concerned with work on turbojets or other air-breathing jet engines: Rocket engines were often called "jets" before the mid-1940s.) During World War II, the United States Army Air Corps asked JPL to analyze the V2 rockets that were developed by Nazi Germany, as well as work on other projects for the war effort. From this study, JPL developed the Corporal rocket which was used in the Korean War. This project later evolved into the Sergeant Rocket until it was discontinued in 1958. By 1958, JPL's government affiliation was transferred to the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and JPL's current mission of unmanned planetary exploration began. JPL retained its original name after the transition, even though research into jet propulsion ceased after 1958. In 1995 JPL once again got involved in propulsion design, issuing a contract to [http://www.space-rockets.com/ Wickman Spacecraft and Propulsion Company] to develop a rocket engine and jet engine that could directly burn the Martian atmosphere of carbon dioxide.

Other works

In addition to its government work, JPL has also assisted the nearby motion picture and television industries, by advising them about scientific accuracy in their productions. Science-fiction shows advised by JPL include Babylon 5 and its sequel series Crusade. The Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-five-foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks.

Missions

Listed chronologically, the following significant missions were partially sponsored by JPL. See [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/ this page] for a complete list of missions.
- Explorer program
- Mariner program
- Pioneer 3 + 4
- Viking program
- Voyager program
- Magellan probe
- Galileo probe
- Deep Space 1 + 2
- Mars Global Surveyor
- Cassini-Huygens
- Stardust
- Mars Odyssey
- Mars Pathfinder
- Mars Exploration Rover Mission
- Spitzer Space Telescope

List of Directors


- Dr. Theodore von Kármán, 1938 – 1944
- Dr. Frank Malina, 1944 – 1946
- Dr. Louis Dunn, 1946 – October 1, 1954
- Dr. William H. Pickering, October 1, 1954 – March 31, 1976
- Dr. Bruce C. Murray, April 1, 1976 – June 30, 1982
- Dr. Lew Allen, Jr., July 22, 1982 – December 31, 1990
- Dr. Edward C. Stone, January 1, 1991 – April 30, 2001
- Dr. Charles Elachi, May 1, 2001 – Present

External links


- [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ JPL's official site] Category:Big Science Category:NASA facilities Category:Pasadena, California ja:ジェット推進研究所

Caltech

The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. One of the world's premier research universities, Caltech maintains a strong emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering. Caltech also owns and manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), an autonomous-space-flight complex that oversees the design and operation of most of NASA's space-probes.

History

Modern Caltech grew from a vocational school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was known successively as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, and Throop College of Technology, before acquiring its current name in 1920. Caltech and Polytechnic School were part of the same insitution till 1907. Polytechnic School is now a private college preperatory school across the street from Caltech. The driving force behind the transformation of Caltech from a school of arts and crafts to a world-class scientific center was the vision of astronomer George Ellery Hale. Hale had joined Throop's board of trustees after coming to Pasadena in 1907 as the first director of the Mount Wilson Observatory. At a time when scientific research in the United States was still in its infancy, Hale saw an opportunity to create in Pasadena an institution for serious research and education in engineering and the natural sciences. Hale succeeded in attracting private gifts of land and money that allowed him to endow the school with well-equipped, modern laboratory facilities. He then convinced two of the leading American scientists of the time, physical chemist Arthur Amos Noyes and experimental physicist Robert Andrews Millikan, to join Caltech's faculty and contribute to the project of establishing it as a center for science and technology. In 1917 Hale hired architect Bertram Goodhue to produce a master plan for the 22 acre (89,000 m²) campus. Goodhue conceived of the overall layout of the campus and designed the Physics Building, Dabney Hall, and several other structures, in which he sought to be consistent with the local climate, the character of the school, and Hale's educational philosophy. Goodhue's designs for Caltech were also influenced by the traditional Spanish mission architecture of Southern California. mission architecture Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes, and Millikan (and aided by the booming economy of Southern California), Caltech grew very significantly in prestige in the 1920s. In 1923, Millikan was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics. In 1925 the school established a department of geology and hired William Bennett Munro, then chairman of the division of History, Government, and Economics at Harvard University, to create a division of humanities and social sciences at Caltech. In 1928 a division of biology was established under the leadership of Thomas Hunt Morgan, the most distinguished biologist in the United States and a discoverer of the chromosome. In 1926 a graduate school of aeronautics was created which eventually attracted Theodore von Kármán, who later contributed to the creation of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and who established Caltech as one of the foremost centers for rocket-science. In 1928 construction began on the Palomar Observatory. Millikan served as "chairman of the executive council" (effectively Caltech's president) from 1921 to 1945, and his influence was such that the Institute was occasionally referred to as "Millikan's School." In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Caltech was known as the home of arguably the two greatest theoretical particle physicists working at the time: Murray Gell-Mann and Richard Feynman. Both Gell-Mann and Feynman received Nobel Prizes for their work, which was central to the establishment of the so-called "Standard Model" of particle physics. Feynman was also widely known outside the physics community as an exceptional teacher and a colorful, unconventional character. Caltech remains, to this day, a relatively small university, with approximately 900 undergraduates, 1,200 graduate students, and 915 faculty members (including professors, permanent research faculty, and postdoctoral researchers.) It is a private institution, governed by its Board of Trustees. As of 2005, Caltech claims 31 Nobel laureates to its name. This figure includes 17 alumni, 14 non-alumni professors, and 4 professors who were also alumni (Carl D. Anderson, Linus Pauling, William A. Fowler, and Edward B. Lewis). The number of awards is 32, because Pauling received the prize in both chemistry and peace. Five faculty and alumni have received a Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, while 47 have been awarded the U.S. National Medal of Science, and 10 have received the National Medal of Technology [http://www.caltech.edu/at-a-glance/]. Other distinguished researchers have been affiliated with Caltech as postdoctoral scholars (e.g., Barbara McClintock, James D. Watson, and Sheldon Glashow) or visiting professors (e.g. Albert Einstein and Edward Witten). The movie comedy Real Genius and the CBS crime drama Numb3rs are loosely based on events at Caltech. [http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~erich/real_genius_refs.html] Caltech is ranked the seventh best university in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, and is tied for this spot with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Academics

Academics at Caltech are famously hard, and the analogy of drinking water from a firehose is often applied. Life is sometimes described by the aphorism, "Work, sleep, social life: pick two," pointing to the great amount of academic work. While Caltech is most famous for its physics department, under the leadership of David Baltimore, it has strived particularly to improve its facilities in the life sciences. Caltech is also known for interdisciplinary programs such as the Computation and Neural Systems (CNS) program.

Academic departments

Caltech is divided into six divisions, each of which offer several degree programs, as well as a number of interdisciplinary programs.
- Division of Biology
- Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
  - Chemistry
  - Chemical Engineering
- Division of Engineering and Applied Science
  - Aeronautics (GALCIT)
  - Applied & Computational Mathematics
  - Applied Mechanics
  - Civil Engineering
  - Computer Science
  - Electrical Engineering
  - Materials Science
  - Mechanical Engineering
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
  - Geology
  - Geophysics
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences
  - Humanities
    - History
    - English
    - History and Philosophy of Science
  - Social Sciences
    - Economics
    - Business Economics and Management
    - Social science
- Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy
  - Physics
  - Mathematics
  - Astronomy
- Applied Physics
- Biochemistry
- Bioengineering
- Biophysics
- Computation & Neural Systems
- Control & Dynamical Systems
- Environmental Science & Engineering
- Geobiology & Astrobiology
- Geochemistry
- Planetary science Not all of these are offered for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Undergraduate program

Caltech is on the quarter system, meaning that students have one quarter before winter break and two quarters after. Thus, the college starts relatively late, in late September, and ends in early June rather than May like most colleges. Also, Caltech is unusual in that students normally take five classes every term rather than four as at most colleges. Finally, rather than majors and minors, Caltech has "options"; a particular option may be a minor or a major, but there cannot be a minor and major in the same subject. Students are allowed to take two options, but only in different divisions. While this technically rules out double-majoring in math and physics, such a combination is considered so exceptionally hard that those who can manage it are generally given an exception. Caltech is known for a rigorous math and science core curriculum. Students are expected to take five quarters of core math, including differential equations and probability and statistics, five quarters of core physics including quantum mechanics, special relativity, and statistical physics, two quarters of chemistry, and a quarter of biology, as well as two quarters of laboratory classes. Despite the high pressure of academics, few students fail classes or fail out of the school as a whole, although the option of transfering out is a running joke. This is due to several cushions that help students survive. First of all, the first two quarters during freshman year are on a pass/fail grading scheme, easing the transition to college. During the second quarter, "shadow grades" are given, but during the first, there are no grades at all. Second, there is little competition and collaboration on homework is encouraged in almost every class. This allows even students who are not doing as well as others to learn the material and not get behind in their studies. Undergraduates at Caltech are also encouraged to participate in research. Most students do research through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program at least once during their stay, and many continue it during the school year. Students come up with SURF proposals in collaboration with professors, and usually most of the SURF grant requests are awarded.

Student life

House system

See main article: House System at Caltech During the early 20th century, a Caltech committee visited several universities and decided to transform the undergraduate housing system from regular fraternities to a House System, similar to the residential college system of Oxford and Cambridge. Four (south) houses (or hovses, so named for the inscription on the gates thereof) were built: Blacker House, Dabney House, Fleming House, and Ricketts House. In the 1960s, three north houses were built: Lloyd House, Page House, and Ruddock House. During the 1990s, an additional house, Avery House, was built to accommodate those who feel the original seven houses were not suitable for them. Some students jocularly refer to the Undergraduate Computer Science Laboratory as another house, as a few spend most of their time there. The four south houses will be closed for renovation during the 2005–2006 school year.

Traditions

2006 There are many annual traditions at Caltech, demonstrating the weird and wonderful creativity of its inhabitants. Every Halloween there is a pumpkin drop from the top of the Millikan Library, the highest point on campus, where the pumpkin (frozen in liquid nitrogen) supposedly flashes as it hits the ground, when it reaches "the terminal velocity". Then there is the annual Ditch Day, where seniors ditch school but design elaborate tasks and traps at the doors of their rooms to prevent underclassmen from entering. This has evolved to the point where many seniors spend months designing mechanical/electrical/software obstacles in order to confound the underclassmen. The faculty has been drawn into the event as well, and cancel all classes on Ditch Day so that the underclassmen can participate in what has become a highlight of the year. Another tradition is the playing of the Ride of the Valkyries at 7 AM the morning of finals week with the largest speakers available. The playing of that piece is not allowed at any other time, and any offender is dragged off into the showers to be drenched in cold water fully dressed. The playing of the Ride is such a strong tradition that the music was used during Apollo 17 to awaken Astronaut Harrison Schmitt, the only astronaut-scientist to explore the moon.

Pranks

Harrison Schmitt Caltech students have been known for the many pranks (also known as RF's, short for Real Fun) they have pulled off in the area. The two most famous are the changing of the Hollywood sign to read Caltech, by judiciously covering up certain parts of the letters, and the changing of the Rose Bowl scoreboard to an imaginary game where Caltech soundly trounced MIT. During the 1961 Rose Bowl Game, Caltech students altered the flip-cards that were raised by the stadium attendees to display "Caltech". Recently, a group of Caltech students, during the admitted students program at MIT in 2005, pulled a [http://www.caltechvsmit.com/ string of pranks], including covering up the word Massachusetts in the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" engraving on the main building façade with a banner so that it read "That Other Institute of Technology". A group of MIT hackers retaliated by altering the banner so that the inscription read "The Only Institute of Technology".

Honor Code

Life in the Caltech community is governed by the Honor Code, which states simply: "No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community." This is enforced by a Board of Control, which consists of undergraduate students[http://donut.caltech.edu/about/boc/ug_handbook.php], and by a similar body at the graduate level, called the Graduate Review Board [http://www.its.caltech.edu/~grb/]. The Honor Code, and the atmosphere of respect and trust that it promotes, allows Caltech students to enjoy privileges that make for a more relaxed atmosphere. For example, the Honor Code allows the professors to trust students sufficiently to give them take-home tests. Almost all Caltech tests are take-home, allowing students to take them on their own schedule and in their preferred environment.

Notable alumni


- Carl D. Anderson, BS 1927, PhD 1930 - Nobel laureate in physics (1936)
- Moshe Arens, MS 1953 - former Israeli defense minister and foreign minister
- Arnold Beckman, PhD 1928 - Founder of Beckman Instruments and financier of the first "silicon" company in Silicon Valley, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory.
- Sabeer Bhatia, BS 1991 - Co-founder of Hotmail
- David Brin, BS 1973 - science fiction author
- Frank Capra, BS 1918 - Filmmaker, director of such classics as It's a Wonderful Life
- Chester Carlson, BS 1930 - Inventor of the photocopier, the foundation of Xerox
- Chung-Yao Chao, PhD 1930 - The first scientist that captured positron through electron-positron annihilation. Father of atomic energy enterprise of China.
- Sidney Coleman, PhD 1962 - theoretical physicist
- Fernando J. Corbató, BS 1950 - Computer scientist, recipient of the 1990 Turing Award
- William A. Fowler, PhD 1936 - Nobel laureate in physics (1983)
- Yuan-Cheng Fung, PhD 1948 - Founder of Biomechanics
- Donald A. Glaser, PhD 1950 - Nobel laureate in physics (1960)
- Juris Hartmanis, PhD 1955 - Computer scientist, recipient of the 1993 Turing Award
- Leland H. Hartwell, BS 1961 - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (2001)
- N. Katherine Hayles, MS 1966- critical theorist
- Steingrímur Hermannsson, MS 1952 - former Prime Minister of Iceland
- David Ho, BS 1974 - AIDS researcher
- Tsien Hsue-shen, PhD 1939 - Father of China's rocket program
- Herman Kahn, graduate studies - Nuclear strategist
- Donald Knuth, PhD 1963 - Computer scientist, creator of TeX typesetting language, and author of The Art of Computer Programming, recipient of the 1974 Turing Award
- Edward B. Lewis, PhD 1942 - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1995)
- York Liao, BS 1967 - inventor of liquid crystal displays
- Alan Lightman, PhD 1974 - physicist and novelist
- William Lipscomb, PhD 1946 - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1976)
- Sandra Tsing Loh, BS 1983 - writer, performer, musician, humorist
- Paul MacCready, MS 1948, PhD 1952 - Father of Human Powered Flight, invented the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross
- Benoît Mandelbrot, Eng 1949 - Pioneer of fractal geometry
- John McCarthy, BS 1948 - Computer scientist, inventor of the Lisp programming language and recipient of the 1971 Turing Award
- Edwin Mattison McMillan, BS 1928, MS 1929 - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1951)
- Robert C. Merton, MS 1967 - Nobel laureate in economics (1997)
- Mark M. Mills, PhD 1948 - nuclear physicist.
- Cleve Moler, BS 1961 - Inventor of MATLAB, co-founder of The MathWorks, influential in the field of numerical analysis
- Gordon E. Moore, PhD 1954 - co-founder of Intel Corp. and author of Moore's law
- Andrew Odlyzko, BS, MS 1971 - mathematician, demonstrated the Montgomery-Odlyzko Law
- Frank Oppenheimer, PhD 1939 - Manhattan Project physicist, founder of the Exploratorium
- Douglas D. Osheroff, BS 1967 - Nobel laureate in physics (1996)
- Linus Pauling, PhD 1925 - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1954) and peace (1962)
- William Luther Pierce, graduate studies - Neo-Nazi activist, founder of the white supremacist National Alliance, author of The Turner Diaries
- Kenneth Pitzer, BS 1935 - winner of the National Medal of Science, third president of Rice University, sixth president of Stanford University, Director of Research for Atomic Energy Commission (1949-1951)
- John M. Poindexter, PhD 1964 - Director of DARPA Information Awareness Office, National Security Advisor to Ronald Reagan
- Leo James Rainwater, BS 1939 - Nobel laureate in physics (1975)
- Simon Ramo, PhD 1936 - co-founder of TRW and developed ICBMs
- Benjamin Rosen, BS 1954 - co-founder of Compaq
- Harrison Schmitt, BS 1957 - astronaut and US Senator, the only geologist to have ever walked on the moon
- William Shockley, BS 1932 - Nobel laureate in physics (1956)
- Edward Simmons, BS 1934, MS 1936 - inventor of the strain gauge
- Vernon L. Smith, BS 1949 - Nobel laureate in economics (2002)
- Robert Tarjan, BS 1969 - Computer scientist, recipient of the 1986 Turing Award
- Howard M. Temin, PhD 1960 - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1975)
- Charles H. Townes, PhD 1939 - Nobel laureate in physics (1964)
- Harry Turtledove, undergraduate studies - historian and fiction writer
- Kenneth G. Wilson, PhD 1961 - Nobel laureate in physics (1982)
- Robert W. Wilson, PhD 1962 - Nobel laureate in physics (1978)
- Stephen Wolfram, PhD 1979 - Creator of Mathematica

Notable faculty


- Carl D. Anderson - Nobel laureate in physics (1936)
- Don L. Anderson - Crafoord laureate in geosciences (1998)
- Michael Aschbacher - winner of the Cole Prize in Algebra (1980)
- Robert Bacher - nuclear physicist and member of the Manhattan Project
- David Baltimore - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1975), President of Caltech (departing)
- Jacqueline K. Barton - Bioinorganic chemist and MacArthur Fellow (1991)
- George Wells Beadle - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1958)
- Seymour Benzer - Crafoord laureate in biosciences (1993)
- Pamela J. Björkman - pioneering structural and cell biologist
- Colin F. Camerer - economist
- Max Delbrück - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1969)
- Renato Dulbecco - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1975)
- Richard Feynman - Nobel laureate in physics (1965)
- Murray Gell-Mann - Nobel laureate in physics (1969) and co-founder of Santa Fe Institute
- William Goddard, III - theoretical chemist, notable proponent of blue chalk
- David Goodstein - director of The Mechanical Universe, Vice-Provost of Caltech
- Harry B. Gray - Inorganic chemist, winner of National Medal of Science (1986), and founding director of the Beckman Institute
- Robert H. Grubbs - Nobel laureate in chemistry (2005)
- George Ellery Hale - astronomer
- Theodore von Kármán - expert in aeronautics and rocket-scientist
- Christof Koch - biologist
- Rudolph Marcus - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1992)
- Carver Mead - computer scientist
- Robert A. Millikan - Nobel laureate in physics (1923)
- Thomas Hunt Morgan - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1933)
- Rudolf Mössbauer - Nobel laureate in physics (1961)
- Arthur A. Noyes - chemist
- James Olds - neuroscientist
- Robert Oppenheimer - physicist
- Clair Cameron Patterson - determined the age of the Earth, exposed lead pollution
- Linus Pauling - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1954), laureate in peace (1962)
- Charles Plott - economist
- H. David Politzer - Nobel laureate in physics (2004)
- John Preskill - physicist
- Charles Francis Richter - creator of the Richter scale
- Herbert J. Ryser - mathematician, leading figure in Combinatorics
- Maarten Schmidt - discovered quasars
- John Schwarz - physicist
- Barry Simon - mathematical physicist
- Roger W. Sperry - Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine (1981)
- Charles C. Steidel - MacArthur Fellow (2002)
- Kip Thorne - physicist
- Richard C. Tolman - mathematical physicist
- Gerald J. Wasserburg - Crafoord laureate in geochemistry (1986)
- Mark B. Wise - physicist
- Ahmed H. Zewail - Nobel laureate in chemistry (1999)
- Fritz Zwicky - astronomer, produced the first evidence of dark matter

External links


- [http://www.caltech.edu/ Official site]
- [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/articles/goodstein/ History of Caltech] (at the official Nobel Prize website)
- [http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu Undergraduate Computer Science Laboratory]
- [http://pr.caltech.edu/events/caltech_nobel/ Caltech Nobel Laureate Biographies]
- [http://www.cripplingdepression.com/ Crippling Depression] — a satirical comic strip serialized in California Tech, the Caltech student newspaper
- [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/pranks/rosebowl.html The Great Rose Bowl Hoax]
- [http://donut.caltech.edu/about/boc/ug_handbook.php Honor Code]
- Ditch Days: [http://pr.caltech.edu/events/ditchday/2000/ 2000], [http://pr.caltech.edu/events/ditchday/2001/ 2001], [http://pr.caltech.edu/events/ditchday/2002/ 2002], [http://pr.caltech.edu/events/ditchday/2003/ 2003], [http://pr.caltech.edu/events/ditchday/2004/ 2004], [http://pr.caltech.edu/events/ditchday/2005/ 2005]
- [http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~erich/real_genius_refs.html List of references to Caltech in the film Real Genius] Category:Los Angeles area colleges and universities Category:Universities and colleges in California Category:Association of American Universities
- Category:Pasadena, California ko:캘리포니아 공과대학교 ja:カリフォルニア工科大学

La Cañada Flintridge, California

La Cañada Flintridge is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 20,318. La Cañada is pronounced La Kinyada, rather than La Canada like the country, because it retains the Spanish language ñ.

Geography

La Cañada Flintridge is located at 34°12'22" North, 118°11'58" West (34.206047, -118.199499). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 22.4 km² (8.6 mi²). 22.4 km² (8.6 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water. La Cañada Flintridge is situated in the eastern end of the Crescenta Valley. It is nestled between the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Rafael Hills, below the Angeles National Forest. La Cañada is home to Descanso Gardens and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

History

During the Spanish era, the area was known as Rancho La Cañada, or the Ranch of the Gorge. The area used to be two unincorporated communities (La Cañada and Flintridge) until they incorporated in 1976, out of the unincorporated Los Angeles County land. The city name specifically does not have a hyphen in it, to illustrate unity between the communities that were once separately known as La Cañada and Flintridge.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there are 20,318 people, 6,823 households, and 5,690 families residing in the city. The population density is 906.9/km² (2,348.9/mi²). There are 6,989 housing units at an average density of 312.0/km² (808.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 74.53% White, 0.36% Black or African American, 0.18% Native American, 20.57% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.01% from other races, and 3.31% from two or more races. 4.80% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 6,823 households out of which 44.1% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.7% are married couples living together, 7.3% have a female householder with no husband present, and 16.6% are non-families. 14.4% of all households are made up of individuals and 8.0% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.95 and the average family size is 3.27. In the city the population is spread out with 29.8% under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 20.9% from 25 to 44, 30.2% from 45 to 64, and 14.0% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 42 years. For every 100 females there are 93.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 90.5 males. The median income for a household in the city is $109,989, and the median income for a family is $122,779. Males have a median income of $92,760 versus $57,321 for females. The per capita income for the city is $52,838. 4.3% of the population and 3.6% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 4.8% of those under the age of 18 and 5.1% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Education

The La Cañada Unified School District serves the city. The elementary schools serve grades K-6. The public high school, La Cañada High School, which also serves as a middle school (grades 7-8), is a blue-ribbon public high school. There are also several private schools in the city (Flintridge Preparatory School, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, and St. Francis High School).

Community Organizations

La Cañada has several clubs and social organizations:
- La Cañada Thursday Club
- La Cañada Flintridge Coordinating Council
- Stardusters Dance Club
- [http://www.alflintridge.org/ Assistance League of Flintridge]
- Cañada Auxiliary of Professionals of Assistance League of Flintridge
- Crescenta-Cañada Lions Club
- Delta Kappa Gamma, Alpha Upsilon Chapter
- Flintridge Guild of Children’s Hospital Friends of La Cañada Flintridge Library
- Girl Scout Assoc. Of La Cañada
- Glendale Community Foundation
- [http://www.lcfkiwanisam.org/kiwanis.htm Kiwanis Club of La Cañada]
- [http://www.lacanadaflintridge.com La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce and Community Assn]
- La Cañada Flintridge Educational Foundation La Cañada Flintridge Orthopaedic Guild
- La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses
- La Cañada Flintridge Trails Council
- La Cañada Flintridge Women's Club
- La Cañada High School Friends of Drama
- La Cañada High School Music Parents Association
- La Cañada Junior Women's Club
- La Cañada Newcomers Club
- La Cañada Thursday Club
- La Cañada Valley Beautiful
- La Crescenta Valley Republican Women Federation
- [http://www.lacanadaflintridge.com/comm/directory/lanterman_house.htm Lanterman Historical Museum Foundation]
- Leisure Club of La Cañada Flintridge
- Lions Club Foundation
- Los Altos Auxiliary of the Sycamores
- Roger Barkley Community Foundation
- Rotary Club of La Cañada Flintridge
- Community Scholarship Foundation of La Cañada Flintridge
- Special Children's League
- St. Bede's Parish Council of Women
- St. Bede's Church Skidettes
- Verdugo Hills Hospital Volunteers
- Wellness Community - Foothills
- Women's Council of Verdugo Hills Hospital & Foundation
- Towne Singers

External link


- [http://www.lacanadaflintridge.com/ Official city website] Category:Cities in Los Angeles County

NASA

] The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. It is also responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research.

Vision and mission

NASA's vision is "to improve life here, extend life to there, and to find life beyond." Its mission is "to understand and protect our home planet; to explore the Universe and search for life; and to inspire the next generation of explorers."

History

Space Race

:For additional background, please see the Space Race article Space Race launch of Redstone rocket and NASA's Mercury 3 capsule Freedom 7 with Alan Shepard Jr. on the United States' first human flight into sub-orbital space. (Atlas rockets were used to launch Mercury's orbital missions.)]] Following the Soviet space program's launch of the world's first man-made satellite (Sputnik 1) on October 4, 1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to U.S. security and technological leadership, urged immediate and swift action; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his advisers counseled more deliberate measures. Several months of debate produced agreement that a new federal agency was needed to conduct all nonmilitary activity in space. On July 29, 1958, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). When it began operations on October 1, 1958, NASA consisted mainly of the four laboratories and some 8,000 employees of the government's 46-year-old research agency for aeronautics, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), though the probably most important contribution actually had its roots in the German rocket program led by Wernher von Braun, who is today regarded as the father of the United States space program. NASA's early programs were research into human spaceflight, and were conducted under the pressure of the competition between the USA and the USSR (the Space Race) that existed during the Cold War. The Mercury program, initiated in 1958, started NASA down the path of human space exploration with missions designed to discover simply if man could survive in space. Representatives from the U.S. Army (M.L. Raines, LTC, USA), Navy (P.L. Havenstein, CDR, USN) and Air Force (K.G. Lindell, COL, USAF) were selected/requested to provide assistance to the NASA Space Task Group through coordination with the existing U.S. military research and defense contracting infrastructure, and technical assistance resulting from experimental aircraft (and the associated military test pilot pool) development in the 1950s. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American in space when he piloted Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital flight. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962 during the 5-hour flight of Friendship 7. Once the Mercury project proved that human spaceflight was possible, project Gemini was launched to conduct experiments and work out issues relating to a moon mission. The first Gemini flight with astronauts on board, Gemini III, was flown by Virgil "Gus" Grissom and John W. Young on March 23, 1965. Nine other missions followed, showing that long-duration human space flight was possible, proving that rendezvous and docking with another vehicle in space was possible, and gathering medical data on the effects of weightlessness on humans.

Apollo program

Following the success of the Mercury and Gemini programs, the Apollo program was launched to try to do interesting work in space and possibly put men around (but not on) the Moon. The direction of the Apollo program was radically altered following President John F. Kennedy's announcement on May 25, 1961 that the United States should commit itself to "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by 1970. Thus Apollo became a program to land men on the Moon. The Gemini program was started shortly thereafter to provide an interim spacecraft to prove techniques needed for the now much more complicated Apollo missions. Gemini program.]] After eight years of preliminary missions, including NASA's first loss of astronauts with the Apollo 1 launch pad fire, and the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon (Apollo 8) at the end of 1968, the Apollo program achieved its goals with Apollo 11 which landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon's surface on July 20, 1969 and returned them to Earth safely on July 24. Armstrong's first words upon stepping out of the Eagle lander captured the momentousness of the occasion: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Twelve men would set foot on the Moon by the end of the Apollo program in December 1972. NASA had won the moon race, and in some senses this left it without direction, or at the very least without the public attention and interest that was necessary to guarantee large budgets from Congress. After President Lyndon Johnson left office, NASA lost its main political supporter, and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was moved to a position lobbying in Washington. Plans for ambitious follow-on projects to construct a space station, establish a lunar base and launch a human mission to Mars by 1990 were proposed but with the end to procurement of Saturn and Apollo hardware, there was no capability to support these. The near-disaster of Apollo 13, where an oxygen tank explosion nearly doomed all three astronauts, helped to recapture national attention and concern. Although missions up to Apollo 20 were planned, Apollo 17 was the last mission to fly under the Apollo banner. The program ended because of budget cuts (in part due to the Vietnam War) and the desire to develop a reusable space vehicle.

Other early missions

Although the vast majority of NASA's budget has been spent on human spaceflight, there have been many robotic missions instigated by the space agency. In 1962 the Mariner 2 mission was launched and became the first spacecraft to make a flyby of another planet – in this case Venus. The Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter missions were essential to assessing lunar conditions before attempting Apollo landings with humans on board. Later, the two Viking probes landed on the surface of Mars and sent color images back to Earth, but perhaps more impressive were the Pioneer and particularly Voyager missions that visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune sending back scientific information and color images. Having lost the moon race, the Soviet Union had, along with the USA, changed its approach. On July 17, 1975 an Apollo craft (finding a new use after the cancelling of planned lunar flights) was docked to the Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft, in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Although the Cold War would last many more years, this was a critical point in NASA's history and much of the international co-operation in space exploration that exists today has its genesis with this mission. America's first space station, Skylab, occupied NASA from the end of Apollo until the late 1970s.

Shuttle era

Skylab 1981 ]] The space shuttle became the major focus of NASA in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Planned to be a frequently launchable and mostly reusable vehicle, four space shuttles were built by 1985. The first to launch, Columbia did so on April 12, 1981. The shuttle was not all good news for NASA – flights were much more expensive than initially projected, and even after the 1986 Challenger disaster highlighted the risks of space flight, the public again lost interest as missions appeared to become mundane. Work began on Space Station Freedom as a focus for the manned space programme but within NASA there was argument that these projects came at the expense of more inspiring unmanned missions such as the Voyager probes. The Challenger disaster aside the late 1980s marked a low point for NASA. Nonetheless, the shuttle has been used to launch milestone projects like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The HST was created with a relatively small budget of $2 billion but has continued operation since 1990 and has delighted both scientists and the public. Some of the images it has returned have become near-legendary, such as the groundbreaking Hubble Deep Field images. The HST is a joint project between ESA and NASA, and its success has paved the way for greater collaboration between the agencies. In 1995 Russian-American interaction would again be achieved as the Shuttle-Mir missions began, and once more a Russian craft (this time a full-fledged space station) docked with an American vehicle. This cooperation continues to the present day, with Russia and America the two biggest partners in the largest space station ever built – the International Space Station (ISS). The strength of their cooperation on this project was even more evident when NASA began relying on Russian launch vehicles to service the ISS following the 2003 Columbia disaster, which grounded the shuttle fleet for well over two years. Costing over one hundred billion dollars, it has been difficult at times for NASA to justify the ISS. The population at large have historically been hard to impress with details of scientific experiments in space, preferring news of grand projects to exotic locations. Even now, the ISS cannot accommodate as many scientists as planned. During much of the 1990s, NASA was faced with shrinking annual budgets due to Congressional belt-tightening in Washington, DC. In response, NASA's ninth administrator, Daniel S. Goldin, pioneered the "faster, better, cheaper" approach that enabled NASA to cut costs while still delivering a wide variety of aerospace programs (Discovery Program). That method was criticized and re-evaluated following the twin losses of Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999.

NASA's future

Mars Polar Lander and the planned crew and heavy lift launch vehicles]] NASA's most publicly-inspiring mission of recent years has probably been the Mars Pathfinder mission of 1997. Newspapers around the world carried images of the lander dispatching its own rover, Sojourner, to explore the surface of Mars in a way never done before at any extra-terrestrial location. Less publicly acclaimed but performing science from 1997 to date (2005) has been the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Since 2001, the orbiting Mars Odyssey has been searching for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on the red planet. NASA expects to continue exploring the Red Planet with more spacecraft such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which will reach Mars in 2006. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which killed the crew of six American and one Israeli astronaut, and caused a 29-month hiatus in space shuttle flights, triggered a serious re-examination of NASA's priorities. The U.S. government, various scientists, and the public all considered the future of the space program. On January 14, 2004, ten days after the landing of Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, President George W. Bush announced a new plan for NASA's future, dubbed the Vision for Space Exploration. According to this plan, humankind will return to the moon by 2020, and set up outposts as a testbed and potential resource for future missions. The space shuttle will be retired in 2010 and the Crew Exploration Vehicle will replace it by 2014, capable of both docking with the ISS and leaving the Earth's orbit. The future of the ISS is somewhat uncertain – construction will be completed, but beyond that is less clear. Although the plan initially met with skepticism from Congress, in late 2004 Congress agreed to provide start-up funds for the first year's worth of the new space vision. Hoping to spur innovation from the private sector, NASA established a series of Centennial Challenges, technology prizes for non-government teams, in 2004. The Challenges include tasks that will be useful for implementing the Vision for Space Exploration, such as building more efficient astronaut gloves.

Criticisms

Some commentators, such as Mark Wade, note that NASA has suffered from a 'stop-start' approach to its human spaceflight programs. The Apollo spacecraft and Saturn family of launch vehicles were abandoned in 1970 after billions of dollars had been spent on their development. In 2004 the U.S. Government proposed eventually replacing the Shuttle with a Crew Exploration Vehicle that would allow the agency to again send astronauts to the Moon. Despite the reduction of its budget following project Apollo, NASA has maintained a top-heavy bureaucracy resulting in inflated costs and compromised hardware. Crew Exploration Vehicle on October 31, 1998.]] Currently, the ISS relies on the Shuttle fleet for all major construction shipments. The Shuttle fleet has lost two spacecraft and fourteen astronauts in two disasters in 1986 and 2003. While the 1986 loss was made up with a Shuttle built from replacement parts, NASA does not plan to build another shuttle to replace the second loss. (But see also CEV.) The ISS, which was intended to have a crew of seven as of 2005, now has a skeleton crew of two, causing many intended research projects to be delayed. Other nations that have invested heavily in the space station's construction, such as the members of the European Space Agency, are fearful that the ISS's fate will soon match the fate of Skylab. As of 2005, however, all of the European and Japanese contributions to the ISS are years behind development schedule themselves.

NASA spaceflight missions

Human spaceflight


- Mercury program
- Gemini program
- Apollo program
- Skylab
- Space Shuttle
- International Space Station (working together with ESA, Rosviakosmos and JAXA)
- Project Constellation

Robotic space missions


- Earth Observing
  - Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
  - TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics)
- Lunar missions
  - Ranger
  - Surveyor
  - Lunar Orbiter
  - Clementine
  - Lunar Prospector
- Mercury missions
  - Mariner 10
  - MESSENGER
- Venus missions
  - Mariner 2, 5 and 10
  - Pioneer Venus
  - Magellan
- Mars missions
  - Mariner 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9
  - Viking 1 and 2
  - Mars Observer
  - Mars Pathfinder
  - Mars Climate Orbiter
  - Mars Polar Lander
  - Mars Global Surveyor
  - 2001 Mars Odyssey
  - Mars Exploration Rovers
  - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  - Phoenix Lander (Planned for 2007)
  - Mars Science Laboratory (Planned for 2009)
- Jupiter missions
  - Pioneer 10
  - Galileo
  - Juno
- Saturn missions
  - Cassini-Huygens together with ESA
- Multi-planet missions
  - Pioneer 11 – Jupiter and Saturn
  - Mariner 10 – Venus and Mercury
  - Voyager 1 – Jupiter and Saturn
  - Voyager 2 – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
  - New Horizons (Planned for 2006) – Jupiter, Pluto and Kuiper Belt
- Asteroidal/cometary missions
  - NEAR Shoemaker
  - Deep Space 1
  - Stardust
  - Deep Impact
  - Dawn (Planned for 2006)
- Proposed or canceled planetary-asteroid missions
  - JIMO (cancelled)
  - CRAF (cancelled)
  - NetLanders (cancelled)
  - Pluto Kuiper Express (cancelled; New Horizons is replacement)
  - Titan Explorer (proposed)
  - Neptune Orbiter (proposed)
- Sun observing missions
  - SOHO – ESA partnership
  - Ulysses – ESA partnership
- Great Observatories for Space Astrophysics
  - Hubble Space Telescope – ESA partnership
  - Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
  - Chandra X-ray Observatory
  - Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF)
- Other observatories
  - COBE
  - FUSE
  - Infrared Astronomical Satellite
  - James Webb Space Telescope – ESA partnership
  - WMAP

List of NASA administrators

# T. Keith Glennan (1958–1961) # James E. Webb (1961–1968) # Thomas O. Paine (1969–1970) # James C. Fletcher (1971–1977) # Robert A. Frosch (1977–1981) # James M. Beggs (1981–1985) # James C. Fletcher (1986–1989) # Richard H. Truly (1989–1992) # Daniel S. Goldin (1992–2001) # Sean O'Keefe (2001–2005) # Michael Griffin (2005–)

Field installations

In addition to headquarters in Washington, D.C., NASA has field installations at:
- Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
- Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
- John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, Cleveland, Ohio
- Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
  - Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York
  - Independent Verification and Validation Facility, Fairmont, West Virginia
  - Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena, California
  - Deep Space Network stations:
    - Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, Barstow, California
    - Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, Madrid, Spain
    - Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
- Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas
  - White Sands Test Facility, Las Cruces, New Mexico
- John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida
- Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia
- George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
  - Michoud Assembly Facility, New Orleans, Louisiana
- John C. Stennis Space Center, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Awards and decorations

NASA presently bestows a number of medals and decorations to astronauts and other NASA personnel. Some awards are authorized for wear on active duty military uniforms. Current NASA awards are as follows:
- Congressional Space Medal of Honor
- NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal
- NASA Distinguished Service Medal
- NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal
- NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Administrative Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Bravery Medal
- NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal
- NASA Exceptional Service Medal
- NASA Exceptional Technological Achievement Medal
- NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal
- NASA Public Service Medal
- NASA Space Flight Medal

Related legislation


- 1958 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration PL 85-568 (passed on July 29)
- 1961 – Apollo mission funding PL 87-98 A
- 1970 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Research and Development Act PL 91-119
- 1984 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 98-361
- 1988 – National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act PL 100-685
- NASA Budget 1958–2005 in 1996 Constant Year Dollars

See also


- List of aerospace engineering topics
- Astronaut
- Small Aircraft Transportation System
- Space Shuttle
- Space exploration
- Space race
- Robert Gilruth, Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz (flight directors)
- KC-135 Reduced Gravity Aircraft
- Shirley Thomas
- Stewart Brand
- Astronomy Picture of the Day
- Vision for Space Exploration
- Asteroid 11365 NASA is named after the organization.

Other space agencies


- Canadian Space Agency
- CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales)
- China National Space Administration
- European Space Agency
- Italian Space Agency
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
- National Space Agency of Ukraine
- Russian Federal Space Agency
- Soviet space program (historical)

External links

General


- [http://www.nasa.gov NASA Home Page]
- [http://www.nasawatch.com NASA Watch]
-

Further research


- [http://history.nasa.gov/series95.html NASA History Series Publications]
- [http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/cover.html NASA Historical Data Books (SP-4012)]
- [http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/hhrhist.pdf Research in NASA History: A Guide to the NASA History Program (large PDF – over 1,012 kb)]
- [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/ NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server]
- [http://www.eventscope.org Eventscope] Category:Independent Agencies of the United States Government ko:미국항공우주국 ja:アメリカ航空宇宙局 simple:NASA th:องค์การนาซา

Jupiter (planet)

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest within our solar system. Some have described the solar system as consisting of the Sun, Jupiter, and assorted debris,; some describe Jupiter as the solar system's vacuum cleaner, due to its immense gravity well. It, and the other gas giants - Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, are sometimes referred to as "Jovian planets." The Romans named the planet after the Roman god Jupiter (also called Jove). The astronomical symbol for the planet is a stylized representation of the god's lightning bolt. The Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet as the wood star, 木星, based on the Chinese Five Elements (although, curiously enough, through a small telescope, it does somewhat resemble a circular slice of wood in appearance, with the Red Spot being a "knot").

Overview

Jupiter has been known since ancient times and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. In 1610, Galileo Galilei discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter using a telescope, the first observation of moons other than Earth's. Jupiter is 2.5 times more massive than all the other planets combined, so massive that its barycenter with the Sun actually lies above the Sun's surface (1.068 solar radii from the Sun's center). It is 318 times more massive than Earth, with a diameter 11 times that of Earth, and with a volume 1300 times that of Earth. As impressive as it is, extrasolar planets have been discovered with much greater masses. There is no clear-cut definition of what distinguishes a large and massive planet such as Jupiter from a brown dwarf star, although the latter possesses rather specific spectral lines. Jupiter is thought to have about as large a diameter as a planet of its composition can; adding extra mass would result in further gravitational compression, in theory leading to stellar ignition. This has led some astronomers to term it a "failed star", although Jupiter would need to be about seventy times as massive to become a star. brown dwarf Jupiter also has the fastest rotation rate of any planet within the solar system, making a complete revolution on its axis in slightly less than ten hours, which results in a flattening easily seen through an Earth-based amateur telescope. Its best known feature is probably the Great Red Spot, a storm larger than Earth which was first observed by Galileo four centuries ago. Indeed, mathematical models suggest that the storm is a permanent feature of the planet. Jupiter is perpetually covered with a layer of clouds, and may not have any solid surface. Jupiter is usually the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus; however at times Mars appears brighter than Jupiter, while at others Jupiter appears brighter than Venus). It has been known since ancient times. Galileo Galilei's discovery, in 1610, of Jupiter's four large moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (now known as the Galilean moons) was the first discovery of a celestial motion not apparently centered on the Earth. It was a major point in favor of Copernicus' heliocentric theory of the motions of the planets; Galileo's outspoken support of the Copernican theory got him in trouble with the Inquisition.

Physical characteristics

Planetary composition

Jupiter is composed of a relatively small rocky core, surrounded by metallic hydrogen, surrounded by liquid hydrogen, which is surrounded by gaseous hydrogen. There is no clear boundary or surface between these different phases of hydrogen; the conditions blend smoothly from gas to liquid as one descends.

Atmosphere

gas and a passing white oval.]] Jupiter's atmosphere is composed of ~81% hydrogen and ~18% helium by number of atoms. The atmosphere is ~75%/24% by mass; with ~1% of the mass accounted for by other substances - the interior contains denser materials such that the distribution is ~71%/24%/5%. The atmosphere contains trace amounts of methane, water vapour, ammonia, and "rock". There are also traces of carbon, ethane, hydrogen sulfide, neon, oxygen, phosphine, and sulfur. The outermost layer of the atmosphere contains crystals of frozen ammonia. This atmospheric composition is very close to the composition of the solar nebula. Saturn has a similar composition, but Uranus and Neptune have much less hydrogen and helium. Jupiter's upper atmosphere undergoes differential rotation, an effect first noticed by Giovanni Cassini (1690). The rotation of Jupiter's polar atmosphere is ~5 minutes longer than that of the equatorial atmosphere. In addition, bands of clouds of different latitudes, known as tropical regions flow in opposing directions on the prevailing winds. The interactions of these conflicting circulation patterns cause storms and turbulence. Wind speeds of 600 km/h are not uncommon. A particularly violent storm, about three times Earth's diameter, is known as the Great Red Spot, and has persisted through more than three centuries of human observation. The only spacecraft to have descended into Jupiter's atmosphere to take scientific measurements is the Galileo probe (see Galileo mission).

Planetary rings

Jupiter has a faint planetary ring system composed of smoke-like dust particles knocked from its moons by meteor impacts. The main ring is made of dust from the satellites Adrastea and Metis. Two wide gossamer rings encircle the main ring, originating from Thebe and Amalthea. There is also an extremely tenuous and distant outer ring that circles Jupiter backwards. Its origin is uncertain, but this outer ring might be made of captured interplanetary dust.

Magnetosphere

Jupiter has a very large and powerful magnetosphere. In fact, if you could see Jupiter's magnetic field from Earth, it would appear five times as large as the full moon in the sky despite being so much farther away. This magnetic field collects a large flux of particle radiation in Jupiter's radiation belts, as well as producing a dramatic gas torus and flux tube associated with Io. Jupiter's magnetosphere is the largest planetary structure in the solar system. The Pioneer probes confirmed that Jupiter's enormous magnetic field is 10 times stronger than Earth's and contains 20,000 times as much energy. The sensitive instruments aboard found that the Jovian magnetic field's "north" magnetic pole is at the planet’s geographic south pole, with the axis of the magnetic field tilted 11 degrees from the Jovian rotation axis and offset from the center of Jupiter in a manner similar to the axis of the Earth's field. The Pioneers measured the bow shock of the Jovian magnetosphere to the width of 26 million kilometres (16 million miles), with the magnetic tail extending beyond Saturn’s orbit. The data showed that the magnetic field fluctuates rapidly in size on the sunward side of Jupiter because of pressure variations in the solar wind, an effect studied in further detail by the two Voyager spacecraft. It was also discovered that streams of high-energy atomic particles are ejected from the Jovian magnetosphere and travel as far as the orbit of the Earth. Energetic protons were found and measured in the Jovian radiation belt and electric currents were detected flowing between Jupiter and some of its moons, particularly Io.

Appearance

Source: [http://www.calsky.com/cs.cgi/Planets/6/3?obs=75910112501970 The Calculated Sky]

Exploration of Jupiter

A number of probes have visited Jupiter.

Pioneer flyby missions

Pioneer 10 flew past Jupiter in December of 1973, followed by Pioneer 11 exactly one year later. They provided important new data about Jupiter's magnetosphere, and took some low-resolution photographs of the planet.

Voyager flyby missions

Pioneer 11 Voyager 1 flew by in March 1979 followed by Voyager 2 in July of the same year. The Voyagers vastly improved our understanding of the Galilean moons and discovered Jupiter's rings. They also took the first close up images of the planet's atmosphere.

Ulysses flyby mission

In February 1992, Ulysses solar probe performed a flyby of Jupiter at a distance of 900,000 km (6.3 Jovian radii). The flyby was required to attain a polar orbit around the Sun. The probe conducted studies on Jupiter's magnetosphere. Since there are no cameras onboard the probe, no images were taken. In February 2004, the probe came again in the vicinity of Jupiter. This time distance was much greater, about 240 million km.

Galileo mission

So far the only spacecraft to orbit Jupiter is the Galileo orbiter, which went into orbit around Jupiter in December 7, 1995. It orbited the planet for over seven years and conducted multiple flybys of all of the Galilean moons and Amalthea. The spacecraft also witnessed the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter as it approached the planet in 1994, giving a unique vantage point for this spectacular event. However, the information gained about the Jovian system from the Galileo mission was limited by the failed deployment of its high-gain radio transmitting antenna. 1994 An atmospheric probe was released from the spacecraft in July, 1995. The probe entered the planet's atmosphere in December 7, 1995. It parachuted through 150 km of the atmosphere, collecting data for 57.6 minutes, before being crushed by the extreme pressure to which it was subjected. It would have melted and vaporized shortly thereafter. The Galileo orbiter itself experienced a more rapid version of the same fate when it was deliberately steered into the planet on September 21, 2003 at a speed of over 50 km/s, in order to avoid any possibility of it crashing into and possibly contaminating Europa, one of the Jovian moons.

Cassini flyby mission

In 2000, the Cassini probe, en route to Saturn, flew by Jupiter and provided some of the highest-resolution images ever made of the planet.

Future probes

NASA is planning a mission to study Jupiter in detail from a polar orbit. Named Juno, the spacecraft is planned to launch by 2010. After the discovery of a liquid ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa, there has been great interest to study the icy moons in detail. A mission proposed by NASA was dedicated to study them. The JIMO (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter) was expected to be launched sometime after 2012. However, the mission was deemed too ambitious and its funding was cancelled. In 2007, Jupiter will also be briefly visited by the New Horizons probe, en route to Pluto.

Natural satellites

Pluto, Ganymede, Europa and Io.]] Jupiter has at least 63 moons. For a complete listing of these moons, please see Jupiter's natural satellites. For a timeline of their discovery dates, see Timeline of natural satellites. The four large moons, known as the "Galilean moons", are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Galilean moons

The orbits of Io, Europa, and Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, form a pattern known as a Laplace resonance; for every four orbits that Io makes around Jupiter, Europa makes exactly two orbits and Ganymede makes exactly one. This resonance causes the gravitational effects of the three moons to distort their orbits into elliptical shapes, since each moon receives an extra tug from its neighbors at the same point in every orbit it makes. gravitational The tidal force from Jupiter, on the other hand, works to circularize their orbits. This constant tug of war causes regular flexing of the three moons' shapes, Jupiter's gravity stretches the moons more strongly during the portion of their orbits that are closest to it and allowing them to spring back to more spherical shapes when they're farther away. This flexing causes tidal heating of the three moons' cores. This is seen most dramatically in Io's extraordinary volcanic activity, and to a somewhat less dramatic extent in the geologically young surface of Europa indicating recent resurfacing.

Classification of Jupiter's moons

Before the discoveries of the Voyager missions, Jupiter's moons were arranged neatly into four groups of four. Since then, the large number of new small outer moons has complicated this picture. There are now thought to be six main groups, although some are more distinct than others. A basic division is between the eight inner regular moons with nearly circular orbits near the plane of Jupiter's equator, which are believed to have formed with Jupiter, and an unknown number of small irregular moons, with elliptical and inclined orbits, which are believed to be captured asteroids or fragments of captured asteroids. tidal force.]] #Regular moons ##The inner group of four small moons all have diameters of less than 200 km, orbit at radii less than 200,000 km, and have orbital inclinations of less than half a degree. ##The four Galilean moons were all discovered by Galileo Galilei, orbit between 400,000 and 2,000,000 km, and include some of the largest moons in the solar system. #Irregular moons ##Themisto is in a group of its own, orbiting halfway between the Galilean moons and the next group. ##The Himalia group is a tightly clustered group of moons with orbits around 11-12,000,000 km from Jupiter. ##Carpo is another isolated case; at the inner edge of the Ananke group, it revolves in the direct sense. ##The Ananke group is a group with rather indistinct borders, averaging 21,276,000 km from Jupiter with an average inclination of 149 degrees. ##The Carme group is a fairly distinct group that averages 23,404,000 km from Jupiter with an average inclination of 165 degrees. ##The Pasiphaë group is a dispersed and only vaguely distinct group that covers all the outermost moons. It is thought that the groups of outer moons may each have a common origin, perhaps as a larger moon or captured body that broke up.

Life on Jupiter

It is considered highly unlikely that there is any life on Jupiter, as there is little to no water in the atmosphere and any solid surface Jupiter would be under extraordinary pressures. However, in 1976, before the Voyager missions, Carl Sagan hypothesized (with Edwin E. Salpeter) that ammonia-based life could evolve in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. Sagan and Salpeter based this hypothesis on the ecology of terrestrial seas which have simple photosynthetic plankton at the top level, fish at lower levels feeding on these creatures, and marine predators which hunt the fish. The Jovian equivalents Sagan and Saltpeter hypothesized were "sinkers," "floaters," and "hunters." The "floaters" would be giant bags of gas functioning along the lines of hot air balloons, using their own metabolism (feeding off sunlight and free molecules) to keep their gas warm. The "hunters" would be almost squid-like creatures, using jets of gas to propel themselves into "floaters" and consume them. [http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/J/Jupiterlife.html] These ideas are only hypotheses and there is currently no way to prove or disprove them.

Trojan asteroids

In addition to its moons, Jupiter's gravitational field controls numerous asteroids which have settled into the Lagrangian points preceding and following Jupiter in its orbit around the sun. These are known as the Trojan asteroids, and are divided into Greek and Trojan "camps" to commemorate the Iliad. The first of these, 588 Achilles, was discovered by Max Wolf in 1906; since then hundreds more have been discovered. The largest is 624 Hektor.

Cometary impact

624 Hektor During the period July 16 to July 22, 1994, over twenty fragments from the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit Jupiter's southern hemisphere, providing the first direct observation of a collision between two solar system objects. It is thought that due to Jupiter's large mass and location near the inner solar system it receives the most frequent comet impacts of the solar system's planets.

Jupiter in fiction and film


- In Voltaire's Micromégas (1752), the eponymous hero and his Saturnian companion stop on Jupiter for a year, where they "learned some very remarkable secrets".
- In H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (1928–...), Jupiter was the one-time home of the flying polyps.
- In the Doctor Who (1963–...) story "Revenge of the Cybermen", Jupiter is the setting for the Nerva Beacon, a fictional space station that monitors its fictional new moon (Voga - the Planet of Gold) which once more brings the Cybermen into our Solar System.
- In the Star Trek universe (1966–...), Jupiter is home to Jupiter Station.
- Jupiter is the setting of Stanley Kubrick's classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), although the novel of the same name by Sir Arthur C. Clarke is set in the Saturnian system instead. In both the book and the film of the sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two (1984), fictional technology converts Jupiter into a star by increasing the density of its core.
- In Piers Anthony's Bio of A Space Tyrant series (1983–2001), Jupiter is rendered into an analogue of North America. The moons are the Caribbean (and possibly Central America as well), Jupiter itself is inhabited by floating cities in its atmosphere to represent the United States, and the Red Spot represents Mexico.
- The novels of Kim Stanley Robinson, including The Memory of Whiteness (1985), Green Mars (1993) and Blue Mars (1996) depict numerous ideas about the future colonization of Jupiter, although they focus more on the moons than on the planet itself.
- Both Arthur C. Clarke's novella A M