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NASA's Juno mission leaves legacy of science at Jupiter

scientificamerican.com

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Re: NASA's Juno mission leaves legacy of science at Jupiter

#12

Post by btown »

perihelions wrote: post #7
Tuna-Fish wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they are not, because the probe doesn't have anywhere near enough fuel to do this. I suggest stopping use of any news source you have that would print this crap.

You can read their paper here[0]. I agree it's very dodgy (and without even looking at that author's past). While the comet 3I/ATLAS approaches within 53 million km of Jupiter (0.3 au), all they can propose is, optimistically, to bring Juno to within half that distance–27 million km. Hardly seems worth the risks? And that'd end all of Juno's remaining Jupiter science (assuming the MAGA! FY26 budget doesn't get to it…

> without even looking at that author's past

It is worth noting that this comes two weeks after the authors posted https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213 "Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?"

They describe this first paper as "largely a pedagogical exercise" - clearly, if they're now providing emails to news outlets recommending this course change, their view of the target audience has certainly evolved. Orson Welles would be proud.

Re: NASA's Juno mission leaves legacy of science at Jupiter

#13

Post by kristianc »

aruggirello wrote: post #9
Tuna-Fish wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they are not, because the probe doesn't have anywhere near enough fuel to do this. I suggest stopping use of any news source you have that would print this crap.

I was somewhat suspicious that a probe could perform such a feat, but the article mentioned Avi Loeb, an award winning Harvard scientist [1], the author of the proposal, even went as far as computing required trajectory, ignition etc. so I assumed he had all the necessary data, and it was possible. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi_Loeb I don't think considering his proposal might have damaged NASA's reputation. I…

Avi Loeb is a crank. He's a guy with a career largely behind him swinging for the fences for one big hit that secures his legacy.

Re: NASA's Juno mission leaves legacy of science at Jupiter

#15

Post by Yeul »

alsobrsp wrote: post #5
jfengel wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody at NASA takes anything Avi Loeb says seriously. It also happens that NASA is too busy doing damage control to consider anything new. But even if they were, it won't be because Loeb suggested it.

I have seen him speak several times. Does anyone take him seriously?

We live in an age were people take Trump seriously.

Re: NASA's Juno mission leaves legacy of science at Jupiter

#20

Post by coro_1 »

aruggirello wrote: post #9
Tuna-Fish wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they are not, because the probe doesn't have anywhere near enough fuel to do this. I suggest stopping use of any news source you have that would print this crap.

I was somewhat suspicious that a probe could perform such a feat, but the article mentioned Avi Loeb, an award winning Harvard scientist [1], the author of the proposal, even went as far as computing required trajectory, ignition etc. so I assumed he had all the necessary data, and it was possible. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi_Loeb I don't think considering his proposal might have damaged NASA's reputation. I…

>I don't think considering his proposal might have damaged NASA's reputation. I also don't think the interstellar object is an alien probe, I just was excited we got a chance at looking at an interstellar object, that may be totally unlike Solar System objects, and possibly far older. Crap?

There's one image on the NASA page and others. Any more links?

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/

https://esahubble.org/images/heic2509a/

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