The Jovian Explorers: From Juno to JUICE by Dr Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester

Synopsis: NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been orbiting the gas giant since 2016, providing exquisite views of the atmosphere of the giant planet, and discovering how atmospheric circulation in the hidden layers deep below the clouds can influence the dramatic visual changes we see through our telescopes. Whilst Juno’s reconnaissance continues in the coming years, Europe is readying its first ambitious mission to Jupiter: the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), which will explore the planet and its icy satellites in the early 2030s. Launching in 2022, this solar-powered spacecraft is destined to become humankinds first orbiter of an icy moon, Ganymede. This talk will reveal Juno’s latest discoveries, and set the scene for JUICE.

The Speaker: Dr. Leigh Fletcher (@LeighFletcher) is an Associate Professor in Planetary Science at the University of Leicester, specialising in the exploration of planetary weather and climate using Earth-based observatories and visiting spacecraft. He earned a Natural Science degree from Cambridge, a PhD in Planetary Physics from Oxford, and has since worked as a NASA fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and as a Royal Society Research Fellow at Oxford. He was the recipient of the 2016 Harold C. Urey prize for achievements in planetary science by an early-career scientist, awarded by the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS). He is a co-investigator on the Cassini mission to Saturn, the Juno and JUICE missions to Jupiter, and a passionate advocate for future exploration of the distance Ice Giants. He leads a planetary atmospheres team at the University of Leicester, funded by the Royal Society, STFC, and the European Research Council.