AOGS Schools Talk - Dr. Glenn Orton, 1 Aug 2019, 6-7 pm, Lecture 68E, Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Glenn Orton
Senior Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Over 42 years of experience in remote sensing of planetary atmospheres using Earth-based and spacecraft instrumentation. Member of spacecraft experiment teams on Pioneers 10/11, Galileo (Interdisciplinary Scientist, Co-I on 3 instruments), Cassini, Juno; and a collaborating astronomer on ESA’s Infrared Space Observatory and Herschel Space Telescope. Principal and Co-Investigator on open calls for the Hubble, Spitzer and Herschel Space Telescopes. Leader of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility observing campaign for the 1994 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact into Jupiter and contributor to ground-based support campaigns for Pioneers 10/11, Galileo, Cassini, and Juno. Created the model of Jupiter’s atmosphere used for the Galileo Probe design and the model of the spectrum of Uranus used as a calibration standard for Herschel. Author of 258 articles or book chapters published or in the press, and principal author of 44 of these. Mentor to over 200 student interns and 10 postdoctoral fellows.

"The Juno Mission’s Exploration of Jupiter"

Glenn Orton
Senior Research Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Juno spacecraft was launched in August of 2011 and was placed into orbit around Jupiter in July of 2016. It is the first solar-powered spacecraft in the outer solar system and the first to be placed into polar orbits. Its primary goals are (1) to determine the O/H ratio from the abundance of water in the atmosphere to discriminate between alternatives for its origin, (2) to understand Jupiter’s interior structure and dynamical properties by mapping its gravitational and magnetic fields, (3) to map variations in atmospheric composition, cloud opacity and dynamics to depths of over 100 atmospheres of pressure at all latitudes, and (4) to characterize the 3-dimensional structure of Jupiter’s polar magnetosphere and its auroras. Juno is also the first mission to include a public- outreach camera on its instrument payload, which has been providing stunning images of Jupiter at nearly unprecedented spatial resolutions. This talk will survey those results and identify ways in which the general public can become involved in this mission directly.