All language subtitles for The.Jupiter.Enigma.WEBRip.Amazon.en-us

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] It lords
over the solar system.

A mega-world two and a half times the mass

of all the other planets combined.

This spinning giant whips
up hazardous radiation,

ferocious hurricanes,

and treacherous magnetic fields.

A spacecraft charges into the maelstrom

daring the planet Jupiter
to give up its secrets.

Juno is part of a larger effort
to see into giant Jupiter,

to glimpse a time over
four billion years ago

when planets were born and obliterated.

Flung into space or tossed into the sun.

It was a time when the
fate of our own small

and fragile world hung in the balance.

(light dramatic music)

The Greeks called him
Zeus, the Romans, Jupiter.

The king of the gods hid
his nefarious activities

behind swirling clouds.

Only his wife, the goddess
Juno, could pierce the veil

of mists to catch him in the act.

NASA's Juno, the Jupiter
near-polar orbiter,

left Earth on a mission to peer into

the mysterious Jovian atmosphere.

To find clues to the powerful forces

that churn beneath its roiling cloud tops.

And some of 300,000
times the mass of Earth,

Jupiter holds over 70% of the mass

of the solar system beyond the sun.

Juno is the latest in a series of missions

designed to measure the
properties of the planet,

how it got so large,

and how it shaped a rocky blue world.

Earth.

(light funky music)

To understand Jupiter's early years,

astronomers have been watching

another solar system take shape.

Out in the constellation Pictor,

63.4 light years away, a
young star, Beta Pictoris,

is growing its first crop of planets.

One is large enough and far enough from

the star to be photographed.

Beta Pictoris B.

Astronomers have now seen it
on both sides of its orbit.

Look at Beta Pic and you'll see a snapshot

of our solar system more
than four billion years ago.

The observed planet is
growing within the outer zone.

Only clouds of dust and gas, ice,

and countless small objects
called planetesimals.

With matter swirling into it,

the planet is likely a
fury of gravitational

and magnetic energy.

Likewise, its distant cousin, Jupiter,

is surrounded by a raging
but invisible maelstrom.

The king planet's magnetic field

is 20,000 times stronger
than that of Earth.

Looking up from Earth, if
you could see Jupiter's

magnetosphere in the night's sky

it would appear wider than the full moon.

Jupiter's zone of magnetic
influence is so large

that it flares out beyond
the orbit of Saturn like

a lightning bolt hurled by Zeus
into the outer solar system.

Jupiter's magnetic field is the product

of a powerful double dynamo.

One is down deep and permeates the planet,

the other close to the
surface, rings the Equator.

When Jupiter's moon, Io, moves
through this magnetic field,

it emits powerful bursts of radio energy

strong enough to be detected on Earth.

Volcanic eruptions on Io send a flood

of charged particles into this field.

They, in turn, energize massive auroras

that light up the poles
on this giant world.

A haze of charged particles
races around the planet

forming a belt of radiation 1,000 times

the lethal dose for humans.

Flying by in 1973, Pioneer
10 provided the first hints

of this radiation belt when it passed

within 130,000 kilometers
of Jupiter's cloud tops.

A year later, Pioneer 11
took the first closeups

of the great red spot, Jupiter's
immense signature storm.

The Pioneer findings informed the design

of the Twin Voyager spacecraft.

Launched in 1977, engineers
shielded critical voyager

components from radiation.

That allowed the Voyager craft to capture

some 19,000 images including new views

of Jupiter's ghostly rings.

The startling icy terrain of its big moons.

Europa and Ganymede and
powerful active volcanoes

on its inner moon, Io.

The Galileo Mission got
even closer in 1995.

Galileo sent back a treasure
trove of discoveries

about Jupiter's atmosphere.

With a composition nearly
identical to the sun,

Jupiter offers a window into the birth

of our solar system some
five billion years ago.

(intense dramatic music)

Stars and planets are born when clouds

of gas and dust contract,

often quickened by the
explosion of a nearby star.

A shockwave from the dying star causes

the cloud to collapse and to spin.

As matter flows into its center,

temperatures rise high enough
to create a dim proto star.

Within the disc, billions
of tiny dust particles

collide and stick
together forming sand-like

rings called chondrules.

Attracted to one another by gravity

and static electricity,
chondrules join to form pebbles.

Pebbles become boulders.

And finally, planetesimals.

These kilometer-scale objects can collide,

sticking together or breaking apart.

Meanwhile, matter continues
to flow into the central star.

As the star brightens, winds
of radiation begin to blur,

pushing the remaining
dust and gas outward.

At some distance out, called the ice line,

temperatures in the nebula are low enough

for water, methane, ammonia
and carbon compounds

to form solid crystals.

Out here, objects made of rock

and ice come together quickly
to form proto planets.

By this process, the
largest grow the fastest.

To withstand Jupiter's
punishing radiation,

Juno's electronic circuits were
encased in a titanium volt.

Its components were built of
radiation-hardened material.

Every part of Juno that can
be, is wrapped in lead foil.

Launched on August the fifth, 2011,

Juno is formally known as the
Jupiter Near Polar Explorer.

It was the second launch of
NASA's New Frontiers Program.

This series of medium-sized missions

is designed to expand our
knowledge of planetary bodies

and deliver new insights into

the origins of the solar system.

(light music)

The first mission, called New Horizons,

traveled nine and a half years
to the outer solar system.

It mapped the surfaces of
Pluto and its moon Charon,

collected information on their geology

and found clues to their
complex and violent history.

The third mission, called Osiris Rex,

was sent out in 2016 to an
asteroid called 101955 Bennu.

The idea was to actually
land on the asteroid,

pick up rocks and return them to Earth.

These samples will help
address basic questions,

not only about the birth
of the solar system,

but the origin of organic molecules

that helped spark the
evolution of life on Earth.

To score important new science,

these missions have each taken

on daunting technical challenges.

For Juno, the challenge
is to fly close to Jupiter

without getting fried by its
powerful radiation belts.

To do this, the spacecraft was sent into

a series of highly elliptical orbits

to track across Jupiter's poles.

Then to dive beneath its radiation belts

and pass within 4,100 kilometers
of Jupiter's cloud tops.

Out of each 53-day orbit,

Jupiter spends just two hours
in the zone of maximum danger.

The craft spins three times each minute,

allowing its instruments to capture

about 400 slices of
data from pole to pole.

Besides photographing its
complex surface features,

Juno is performing a cat scan of Jupiter.

When scientists look at the planet,

they see structures like
those in Earth's atmosphere.

Cyclones, anticyclones,

jet streams, storms pushing upward.

And yet Jupiter and its weather systems

are radically different.

For one thing, the planet is much larger.

It also rotates faster
and sits much farther

from the sun's warming radiation.

The intricate structures
scrolling across the cloud tops

are a window to conditions deep inside it.

Juno's data shows that
Jupiter's surface flows

extend down as deep as 3,000 kilometers.

Below that, magnetic
fields slow them way down

and pull the planet
into a uniform rotation.

Deeper still, scientists
suspect the inner zone

is a sphere of metallic hydrogen

surrounding a solid core of rock and ice.

Throughout most of the 20th century,

scientists theorized that
giant planets like Jupiter

form in long orbits far from their stars.

While these planets grow by scooping up

a rich supply of icy planetesimals.

Planets inside the ice line stay small

because there is less solid food

during their formative years.

This general understanding was blown away

by recent exoplanet discoveries.

The Kepler Space Missions,
along with ground-based

planet-hunting systems, have
identified more than 2,000

stars with orbiting worlds.

So far, few resemble our solar system.

The inner orbits of many star systems

are graced with so-called hot Jupiters,

large gas giants the
size of Jupiter or larger

that whip around their
parent stars at close range.

Some are being stripped of
gas by powerful solar winds.

Then, there's a class
of rocky super Earths.

At about twice the mass
of our home planet,

they occupy the innermost orbits

of many other solar systems.

It turns out that the most common planets

within these inner regions
are not rocky at all.

It's a class of gas dwarves
smaller than our Neptune

that weigh up to about 10 Earth masses.

Smaller, Earth-sized
planets, are in fact rare.

How did our solar system evolve

in such a different direction?

The answer may lie in
Jupiter's turbulent past.

As Juno passes in close to the planet

her path bends in
response to concentrations

of mass beneath its surface.

Because Jupiter isn't solid,

those regions are free to move and shift.

Jupiter spins faster than any other planet

in the solar system, turning once

every nine hours and 55 minutes.

That bulges is its equator
route and flattens its poles.

By plotting tiny variations
in Juno's timing as it orbits,

investigators can detect concentrations

of mass below the surface.

What Jupiter is made of,
how its density varies,

how forcefully it now spins,

and how massive or solid is its core.

These are all clues as to
when and how it formed.

Our solar system is still buzzing

with the remnants of its birth.

Wandering rocks that haven't changed

since they formed almost
five billion years ago.

Most are so small that
when they encounter Earth

they simply burn up in the atmosphere.

A few larger ones survive the fall.

Scientists date these planetary shards

by measuring molecular
variations, called isotopes,

of two particular metals.

Tungsten and molybdenum.

These meteorites appear to come from

two separate populations that formed

in the inner and the outer solar system.

Something must have driven a wedge between

these two regions
preventing them from mixing.

If this great divider
was the young Jupiter

it had to of grown very fast.

Reaching about 20 times the mass of Earth

within the first million
years of the Sun's formation.

Its gas giant neighbors,
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune,

would've formed in its wake.

By dividing the solar system in this way,

Jupiter would've cut
off the flow of matter

into the inner solar system,
stalling the formation

of large rocky planets or super Earths.

Then came one of the most impactful events

in the history of our solar system.

One set in motion by
Jupiter's sensational rise.

(light dramatic music)

The discovery of large gas planets

within the inner regions
of other solar systems

has prompted a whole new set of questions.

If these giant planets formed beyond

the ice line then migrated inward,

could Jupiter have
followed a similar path?

To test this idea, scientists
used a super computer

to reproduce the early
evolution of our solar system.

They plant a set of initial conditions

into a program designed to simulate

the interaction of gas and
dust, gravity and energy.

The simulation takes us into
one cold and dusty corner

of the galaxy five billion years ago.

Shock waves from a supernova
explosion perturbed the cloud

causing it to collapse into
a dense central region.

Near its center is a
vast rotating hurricane

of dust, gas and water.

In its eye, matter flows into

a newborn star along a thin disc.

Flashes of light within the disc represent

collisions among larger objects.

Concentric rings show their orbits.

The large orbit on the
periphery is Jupiter,

the first full-sized planet to form.

From its position far from the sun,

it has scooped up huge amounts
of ice and hydrogen gas.

Within a million years of its birth,

Jupiter responds to the gravity of the sun

and the mass of the inner solar system.

The model shows Jupiter's inward spiral

known as the Grand Tack.

As the giant planet's orbit shrinks,

it sends the inner
solar system into chaos.

Jupiter flings most large
objects into looping orbits

around the outer solar system
while streaming into the sun.

Finally, Jupiter feels the
pull of another growing planet.

Saturn.

And retreats to the outer solar system.

Jupiter gradually settled back
into its current position.

That left some 20 or 30
small planetary embryos

to patrol the inner solar system.

Here, the simulation speeds up to cover

the next 50 million years.

As these embryos tug on one another,

their orbits destabilize.

When the dust finally settles,

perhaps a hundred million years later,

the number of planets is down to five.

Including Earth and a
Mars-sized world, Theia.

Everything changed when Earth
and Theia crossed paths.

(suspenseful music)

A computer model gives us a
view of the first 24 hours.

Theia sheers about a third of Earth away.

Its shattered remains envelope Earth

in a shockwave of
superheated vaporized rock.

A molten ring forms around the planet,

subjecting Earth to a
rain of secondary impacts.

Within only a century, this orbiting ring

will cool and coalesce into
a single orbiting body.

The moon.

The violence of the moon's
formation would've left Earth

spinning rapidly on a
slightly tilted axis.

A day lasted only about five hours.

In time, the moon stabilized
the planet's tilt,

holding it steady.

As it moved out to its
current distance from Earth,

it gradually slowed our planet's spin.

If the Grand Tack theory
explains the evolution

of the inner solar system,
then it may explain

a host of details that've
long puzzled scientists.

Why, for example, is Mars so small?

The idea is that Jupiter swept up much of

the dust that accumulated
just inside the ice line,

starving Mars.

What explains differences
among the various

classes of asteroids?

The asteroid Bennu, at roughly
500 meters in diameter,

appears to be a fossil
from the time Jupiter

sailed toward the sun.

This dark object is made up
of carbon rich clay materials

born in the explosion of dying stars.

Bennu itself is a product of collisions.

In its four billion years of travel,

the asteroid has likely been stretched,

pulled apart and reformed.

To trace the asteroid's origins,

scientists have launched
the Osiris Rex Mission

with the goal of returning a
sample to labs back on Earth.

They plan to send another
mission called Lucy

to an ensemble of asteroids
that trails Jupiter.

These so-called trojan asteroids

take their name from soldiers who hid

inside the giant horse in Homer's Iliad.

The thinking is that Jupiter
began pulling them along

within the first million
years of its history.

(light music)

Then, there's the main asteroid belt.

A vast hoop of rocks
between Mars and Jupiter.

Scientists believed that as
Jupiter moved toward the sun

during the Grand Tack it dispersed

an original ring of rocks and dust.

When Jupiter moved back out,

it drew a whole new
collection of rocks back in.

By studying the composition
of these asteroids,

including a dwarf planet called Ceres,

scientists hope to confirm their origin.

(blasting)

Finally, the giant planet
carries its own artifacts

from the early solar system.

Most of its 79 moons
are asteroids or comets

captured over the years when they flew

too close to the giant planet.

The four largest satellites are different.

If Io, Europa, Ganymede or
Calisto orbited the sun,

we'd call them dwarf planets.

Scientists believe these moons form slowly

from a disc of ice and debris

that circled Jupiter very
late in its formation.

All four are in tidal mark.

Like our own moon, each keeps
the same face toward Jupiter.

Io, the volcano moon,
orbits closest to Jupiter.

Io shows what can come
from living too close

to an unsympathetic god.

Heaved and stretched by
gravitational interactions

with Jupiter, and warped
by tidal resonances

with the other three large moons,

Io is constantly being turned inside out.

With hundreds of volcanoes,
some blasting lava

to altitudes up to 400 kilometers,

Io is the most geologically
active body in the solar system.

Next is Europa with its bright,

young, glossy surface covered in ice.

Ganymede, with a diameter
of 5,268 kilometers,

is the largest moon in the solar system.

Larger even than the planet Mercury.

Then, there's Calisto.

Two million kilometers from Jupiter.

Spacecraft sensors have shown
that these three icy moons;

Europa, Calisto and Ganymede,

hold different amounts of
water beneath their surfaces.

In Jupiter's early
years, ice, dust and gas

flowed into the planet along a disc.

The Grand Tack model
predicts that Jupiter's disc

would've shrunk as the
planet moved toward the sun.

The two larger ice moons must've started

forming before that.

Europa formed later and had
less water around it to attract.

And Io had almost none.

Jupiter's major moons didn't hoard

all of the planet's icy bounty.

On its inward journey,
Jupiter would've carried

a wave of ice in its wake.

Delivering water that might, one day,

have filled Earth's oceans.

Once settled back in
the outer solar system,

Jupiter, along with
Saturn, began to hurl still

more icy material to
the inner solar system.

(dramatic instrumental music)

Shards of rock and ice rain down on Mars,

Earth, Venus, Mercury and the moon.

The lunar landscape today
bears witness to this period.

A 300 million year fusillade known as

the Late Heavy Bombardment.

Based on data from the moon,

scientists estimate that
our planet would've been hit

by at least four objects
5,000 kilometers across.

Each capable of turning Earth's

entire surface to molten lava.

These collisions may
have unleashed a process

critical to the emergence of
life called impact erosion.

The impacts blasted hot radioactive metals

like uranium and potassium off the planet.

That allowed the planet's outer crust

to rapidly cool and water to remain.

Scientists believed that Earth

was a water planet in its early years.

(dramatic music)

Zipping along at 200,000
kilometers per hour,

the Juno spacecraft takes two hours

to pass from pole to pole.

In that time, it records
a variety of readings

of a world that remains a
gargantuan work in progress.

Winds up to 650 kilometers per hour

whip cold clouds of methane,
hydrogen sulfide, water,

and other compounds into
endlessly swirling works of art.

Sometimes white clouds of ammonia snow

fly over the wide southern red band

making it seem to disappear
from Earth's point of view.

It's cold in the clouds, about
minus 125 degrees celsius.

Deep within the atmosphere,
showers of compressed carbon

may form between the
layers in a diamond rain.

White spots mark the
crests of enormous waves

rising and falling along the surface.

Twirling storms explode
into the upper atmosphere

propelled by heating
hundreds of kilometers below.

They unleash lightning bolts far larger

and stronger than any scene on Earth.

It's the polar regions photographed for

the first time ever by Juno
that have defied expectations.

Here, the belts and zones
of the middle latitudes

disappear and the atmosphere is dominated

by an ensemble of hurricanes.

During it's fourth pass over the planet,

Juno's infrared imaging instrument

captured these structures
in three dimensions.

The northern pole hosts a giant cyclone

surrounded by eight smaller ones,

each over 4,000 kilometers wide.

The bright yellow colors
show deeper warmer areas.

The darker red colors
are cooler cloud tops.

They lightly arise from the interaction

of smooth horizontal
flows and low latitudes

and turbulence at the poles.

The spin of the planet causes
them to drift poleward.

This raw sequence gives a sense
of their spinning movements.

By contrast, the southern cyclone

is surrounded by five cyclones.

From on Earth's perspective,

even these smaller ones are vast.

Up to 7,000 kilometers in diameter

or about the width of Mars.

Why these structures persist
without merging is not known.

(light piano music)

If there's a single feature on Jupiter

that has held us in its thrall,
it's the Great Red Spot.

Juno has been flying directly over it

at an altitude of 9,000 kilometers.

Close enough to see fine details.

Historical records show
this huge high pressure zone

is at least 350 years old.

Astronomers have been
measuring it since 1830.

At about 16,500 kilometers across,

it's 10 times larger than
Earth's largest typhoons.

Juno's data suggests the Great Red Spot

heats the planet's upper atmosphere.

The big cyclone rotates counterclockwise

once every six Earth days.

That period has been getting
shorter as the storm tightens.

The color sometimes fades
for years, then intensifies.

No one knows why.

(light music)

It was the bright light of Jupiter

that attracted Galileo
Galilei in January of 1610.

His small telescope was powerful enough

to resolve the four large
moons circling the great orb.

If another world could have
satellites, he reasoned,

it seemed possible that Earth

could be a satellite of the sun.

If only we could go back
in time to show Galileo

close ups of Jupiter captured by Juno.

How amazed he'd be to learn
that such giant planets

are common in solar systems
throughout the galaxy.

That billions of years ago it marauded

through our own infant solar system.

Destroying worlds, setting
the stage for new ones.

What would he say of our news that Jupiter

left in its wake a quiet zone?

Where a world with oceans
on its surface would form,

and over time, give rise to life.

(light piano music)