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NASA's Juno spacecraft was launched to Jupiter in August 2011 and has been closely monitoring the gas giant ever since. Juno has contributed significantly to NASA's understanding of Jupiter, but his latest discovery may be the most revolutionary yet. For the first time in its history, NASA has confirmed the direct and "definitive" observations of the changing magnetic field of a planet outside the Earth. This process, called secular variation, will help NASA eliminate layers of Jovian storms and clouds for a better insight into Jupiter's interior.
The discovery of NASA also revealed the side effects of strong winds and atmospheric events on the planet's magnetic field.
The NASA Juno has traced the magnetic changes to a particular hot spot near the planet's equator, the "Great Blue Point".
Scott Bolton, senior scientist at the Southwest San Antonio Research Institute in Juno, said, "The centuries-old vitiation has been on the list of planetary scientists for decades.
"This discovery was only made possible by Juno's extremely precise scientific instruments and the unique nature of its orbit, which drives it to the edge of the planet as it moves from pole to pole."
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The large blue spot is an area of intense magnetic activity near the equator of Jupiter, where the secular variation is the strongest.
According to NASA, this incredible place, which is not visible to the naked eye, controls the changing magnetic field of Jupiter.
Oddly, NASA discovered that a combination of strong winds and localized magnetic fields had a profound effect on the planet as a whole.
Kimee Moore, Juno Scientist at Harvard University, said, "It's amazing that a narrow magnetic hot spot, the Great Blue Spot, can be responsible for almost all of Jupiter's secular variation, but the numbers confirm it.
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"With this new understanding of magnetic fields, in later passages of science, we will begin to create a map of Jupiter's secular variation on a planet-wide scale.
"It could also have applications for scientists studying the Earth's magnetic field, which contains many mysteries to solve."
The groundbreaking discovery of NASA was made after 40 years of Jovian observations, starting with the Pioneer 10 spacecraft in 1972.
NASA has discovered small differences between the data collected by Pioneer and the Juno datasets.
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Dr. Moore, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard, said, "Finding something as painstaking as these changes in something as huge as Jupiter's magnetic field was a challenge.
"Having a base of close observations over four decades has provided us with just enough data to confirm that Jupiter's magnetic field is indeed changing over time."
The "zonal winds" responsible for secular variation cross Jupiter's surface at more than 1,860 depths (3,000 km).
In these latitudes, the gas composition of Jupiter is transformed into a form of highly conductive and liquid metal,
This causes magnetic fields to expand and expand, projecting them all around the planet.
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