Washington DC (USA) | Jagran News Desk: In a major discovery, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed that it has found water in the atmosphere of our neighbourhood gas-giant, Jupiter.
According to a statement on NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website, nearly 0.25 per cent of Jupiter's atmosphere comprises of water, especially around the equatorial regions.
The findings are based upon the basis of data provided by the Juno space probe that was launched in 2011 and entered Jupiter's orbit in 2016.
The findings, which were published in the Nature Astronomy journal, said that the information was gathered out of Juno’s eight flybys around the planet.
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However, it is noteworthy to mention that water does not necessarily mean liquid water but the components of oxygen and hydrogen, said the report.
“Juno’s surprise discovery that the atmosphere was not well mixed even well below the cloud tops is a puzzle that we are still trying to figure out. No one would have guessed that water might be so variable across the planet,” said Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton in an article.
Cheng Li, one of the scientists who was involved in the Juno mission, said that the water found in the equator of Jupiter is greater than what the Galileo probe measured.
“Because the equatorial region is very unique at Jupiter, we need to compare these results with how much water is in other regions,” Cheng Li added.
Astronomers have been trying to figure out Jupiter’s water content since decades and this mystery “represents a critical missing piece to the puzzle of our solar system’s formation.”
However, the astronomers suggest that the findings may not be indicative of water abundance across Jupiter.
(With ANI inputs)
Posted By: Aalok Sensharma