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Jupiter - Solid or Gaseous? Ask Juno© John Ackerman 10/2015

If no use is made of the writings of past ages, the world must remain always in theinfancy of knowledge. Marcus Tulius Cicero

AbstractDeuterium enhancements of 10 in LDNs and heavy elements detected by Galileo ©, O, S, Ar, Kr10

and Xe) suggest the giant planets accreted slow and cold from snowflakes and dust at their currentorbits, forming frozen highly deuterated Methane Gas Hydrate (d=0.7) bodies, together comprising>250 earth masses of water. Jupiter incorporated most of the heavy elements in the nascent solarsystem as dust (d=1.33). A recent (6,000 BP) high energy impact on highly deuterated Jupiter triggereda massive nuclear fusion explosion which ejected the Galilean moons and initiated a flaming plumeoriginally extending 2 X 10 km, beyond Callisto. The rapidly rotating plume slowly diminished over6

~ 5000 years, resulting in the differences in the Galilean moons. The fusion reaction has diminished toD+p -> He + (, but is still producing Jupiter’s atmospheric temperature excess and driving the3 +

multiple zonal wind bands. A powerful vortex of hot gases rising ~700 km from the fusion site is sweptwestward ~116,000 km beneath the surface clouds due to Jupiter’s rapid rotation, culminating in theGreat Red Spot (GRS), from which a continuous blizzard of high energy He ions, with half-lives of3 +

400 years, are ejected into space. The GRS is the source of the high energy He ions sensed by3 +

Ulysses, Cassini and Galileo at 4AU, synched with Jupiter’s rotation period. The Juno MicroWaveRadiometer (MWR) system has a good chance to detect the hot vortex extending from the fusionreaction westward to the Great Red Spot, ~ 22 S latitude, due to its large longitudinal extent. The Junoo

Radio Science (gravity) experiment should detect the very large basin or flooded palimpsestsurrounding the fusion impact site and also east-west ice mountain ranges paralleling the vortex dueto the raining out of water as it rises, expands and cools.

IntroductionThis paper proposes that Jupiter and Saturnare solid, frozen, Methane Gas Hydrate(MGH) planets which do not reflect the solarcomposition. The only hydrogen and heliumpresent in their atmospheres today is thatwhich is has been continually released fromthe MGH surface in the last 6,000 years. TheMGH formed as the pressure within theaccreting planets increased in the presence ofample methane (Figure 1). Laboratoryanalyses reveal that a dozen or more watermolecules form rigid cage-like Type Istructures. Each cage typically encapsulatesa methane molecule, but can contain otherforeign molecules or atoms. Type II cagesare larger and can contain larger atoms orcompounds, including Ar, Kr and Xe. Thetwo types are usually intermixed. The

4 8 2 46nominal composition is (CH ) (H O) , withan average density of 0.9 g/cm , usually has3

C slightly enhanced.13

Tests have shown that MGH is twoorders of magnitude stronger than water iceat 208 K, and the difference increases withdecreasing temperature. This strength is1

further enhanced in highly deuterated MGH.

Giant Planet FormationInfrared studies of proto-stars and

Large Dark Nebulae (LDN 1689N) noted a2, 3

10 enhancement of deuterium fractionation10

3 in NH molecules in their outer reaches,suggesting that: (a.) the proto-Sun formedfrom clouds enhanced in deuterium; (b.) as itcontracted and spun-up it acted as acentrifuge, preferentially ejecting heavyelements, including deuterium, into theplanetary disk; c.) heavily deuterated ices of

2 3 2 4volatile molecules (H O, NH , CO and CH )

Figure 1 Nominal Phase diagram forMethane Gas Hydrate

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Figure 2 Zeus’ aegis,Jupiter veil, Mrttanda

formed on small dust grains or nanoparticles4

at the ‘snow line’, the orbit of Jupiter, andaccretion began at the smallest scale by thecohesion of snowflakes, further enhancingdeuterium fractionation; (d.) by thissymbiotic process, Jupiter accretedessentially all of the heavy elements in thenascent solar system within its heavilydeuterated Methane Gas Hydrate structure,resulting in its average density of 1.33,versus Saturn’s density 0.7, closer to pureMGH.

Due to their large orbital radii andperiods, the giant planets formed slowly,therefore cold, over long time spans, perhaps50 to 400 million years. An abundance of5

methane and the increasing internal pressureduring accretion resulted in the idealconditions under which MGH formed. Withthe exception of a relatively small core, thefull spectrum of heavy elements, innucleogenesis proportions, became evenlydistributed throughout the bulk of Jupiter.Cold hydration made possible theincorporation of the noble gases argon,krypton, and xenon which have beendetected by the Galileo atmospheric probe.6

The most abundant volatile2 3 2 4molecules (H O, NH , CO and CH ) not

accreted in Jupiter, continued outward andformed Saturn and the other giants.Primordial hydrogen and helium not capturedin hydrates escaped from the solar system inapproximately one million years as observedin very young systems.

Giant Elemental AbundancesThe MGH hypothesis suggests that

Jupiter and Saturn together comprise >250Earth-masses of water. This explains theorigin of all the satellites and ring around thegiant planets. They are due to impacts whichejectmaterial, primarily water into thesurrounding space.

In contrast, the ‘gas giant’ hypothesissuggests Jupiter and Saturn are 90 % H and10 % He, precluding significant water in93% of the solar system mass, at the sametime failing to explain the origin of the icysatellites and rings and the enhanced oxygen,carbon, sulphur and nitrogen detected by theGalileo atmospheric probe.

The ImpactPrior to 6,000 years BP, Jupiter was a

beautiful blue giant, similar to Uranus andNeptune. Ancient texts reveal that at that date,a body impacted Jupiter, triggering eventswhich are still producing the complex featuresobserved today. The initial energy of theimpact was described in the earliest Greektexts as Zeus having such a headache that hehad Hephaestus split open his head, resultingin the birth of Pallas Athene and that theentire Earth ‘cried out’, suggesting anincredible impulse of gravitational radiation,since no sound could have propagated through600 million km of empty space. As a result,everyone on the Earth witnessed theexplosion.

The impact instantaneouslycompressed and raised the temperature of thehighly deuterated, closely packed MGH (orMGD) in the impact basin above 100 millionK, triggering an inconceivably energeticnuclear fusion explosion which expanded theatmosphere tenfold. Four large masses ofheavy elements ejected with less thanJupiter’s escape velocity formed the proto-Galilean moons, which quickly entered theircurrent resonant orbits.

The Jupiter PlumeThe impact initiated a huge steady-

state fusion reaction on the surface of Jupiter,resulting in a wide plume of flaming gasesthat shot into space two million km from theimpact site at 22 South latitude. This was soo

bright and extensive that it was observed byevery person on Earth at the date as shown inFigure 2. It was imagined to be Zeus’ aegis, adivine shield, because it moved back and forthas in conflict due to Jupiter’s rapid rotation.More appropriately aegis, literally meansa‘violent windstorm’.

In Romanmyth, Jupiter wassaid to have drawnaround himself a‘veil of clouds’ tohide his mischief butJuno, his wife, wasable to look into theclouds and reveal histrue nature. This

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obviously referred to the plume which wasvisible to the naked eye on Earth forthousands of years, not as imagined by theJuno mission designers, the few cloudscurrently present in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

The Rg Veda describes the impact onDyaus-pitar, the heaven father, as caused byhis invisible ‘Maya’, out of which Aditi (TheFirst) was born. The fiery plume “leftbehind” was described as an elephant(Mrttanda) - a description of the enormously7

expanded Jupiter and plume as its head, withthe tip of the plume representing theelephant’s trunk. This interpretation is alsocorroborated by a statement that the elephantwould keep “disappearing and reappearing”,suggesting the appearance of the elephant’s‘trunk’ was due to the rotation of Jupiterevery eight or nine hours as in the case of theZeus’ shield.

Much more recent historical

corroboration of the Jupiter plume appears ina drawing of the shapes of the planets in a 9th

century Arabic epistle from Baghdad (Figure3) , which shows its extent at that date to be8

J~4xR relative to the apparent size of Jupiter.The fact that the Jupiter disk was

discernable implies that the atmosphere wasstill greatly expanded, even at that late date,emphasizing the slow multi-millennial declineof the plume.

For almost six thousand years, theplume hurled an immeasurable mass of ejectainto the inner and outer solar system over awide range of inclined orbits. The ejected gascondensed and froze as it expanded in theweightless environment, forming innumerabledark, porous, low density bodies incorporatingthe full nucleogenesis spectrum of elements,which ‘splatted’ at low velocities formingasteroids resembling ‘comet’ 67P C-G.

The orbits of these bodies weredetermined by the vector sum of the plumeejection velocity at Jupiter latitude (-22 ), spino

and orbital velocity of Jupiter, the sum ofwhich was 30 km/s as compared to the presentescape velocity of 11 km/s. During each 7 to9.9 hour rotation, asteroids were dispersedinto all parts of the solar system, including theKuiper Belt, Oort cloud and toward the Sun.In its earliest stages the plume could haveformed relatively large bodies such as Pluto.Recent impacts of many asteroids is a

possible explanationfor the formation ofits satellites andshort-lived rings ofSaturn . Spokes,photographed onSaturn’s rings byVoyager and Cassinishow the effect ofdispersed masses ofejecta from recentimpacts on Saturn.(Figure 4).

The Galilean MoonsThe fusion plume originally (6000 BP)

extended as far as Callisto’s orbit (Figure 5).It originated at 22 South Latitude, but due too

its great width and the rapid spin of theplanet, it still enveloped each of the three

Figure 3 9 century AD Arab epistle onth

planets. Upper left drawing “one with aforelock” “Long Bearded” “with thetemperament of Jupiter”

Figure 4 Spokes onSaturn’s rings

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inner moons with every rotation of Jupiterfor thousands of years. As the flaming plumegradually declined, it first failed to envelopeCallisto, but the solidified bodies from theplume still pummeled the outer moon forthousands of years, leaving an icy surfacefull of impact craters. A dozen crater chains,or catenae, with raised rims, have beenidentified on Callisto, not associated withany major impact crater. 9

Several millennia later (3000 BP) itfailed to reach Ganymede, but had spent thatadditional time enveloping, coating andheating it, so a larger core of heavy elementsaccumulated before the water, and later icybodies, could condense on its surface.Although a thin icy layer finally accumulatedon Ganymede, the temperature was still sohigh that the craters, including catenae, dueto later impacting frozen plume bodies

slumped, many forming palimpsests - round,completely flat circles. Bands of molecularoxygen have been found imbedded in thetrailing hemisphere, that was most impactedby the plume from Jupiter’s rapid rotation.

Having been heated for anotherthousand years after Ganymede, Europa wastoo hot for water, dominating the plume, tocondense on its surface for an additionalthousand years. When it finally cooledsufficiently, the water in its orbit all settled,about 1000 BP, forming an ocean 100 kmdeep, but the heavy element core is still hot,keeping the ocean liquid. Since then, a thinicy crust has formed, with ‘chaotic’ regionsimplying a number of penetrating impactssince the ice began to form. Sulphuric acid10

from the same bodies has been detected on itssurface.

Based on the drawing in Figure 3, Iowas still being swept by the plume in 800 AD,fitting the suggested time scale of its decline.It’s rocky, volcanic, sulphurous surfacedemonstrates the intense radiation and massof heavy elements accumulated in the last6,000 years from the Jupiter plume. Due tothe rapid rotation of Jupiter, the blasts of theplume concentrated more heat on Io’s trailinghemisphere, evident in the concentration ofvolcanoes there, acknowledged to beinconsistent with the tidal tug-of-warhypothesis. As also stated by Professor11

William Hubbards (Planetary Interiors, p.306) “In order to explain Io’s observed heatflux by this tidal dissipation mechanism, wemust assume that Io’s Q is of the order ofunity!” - a meaningless value. The Galileanmoons were born out of Jupiter ~6,000 yearsBP and their apparent differences, shown inFigure 6, are due to the subsequent differentexposure times of each to the fusion plumefrom the impact site.

With the exception of Io, all thesatellites and rings surrounding the giantplanets reflect the composition of theirprimaries, ejected by impacts on their MGHsurfaces, which comprises primarily water(thus hydrate), but also heavy elements,including iron, in their nucleogenesisproportions. This results in some magneticfield properties not expected in apparently icybodies.

Figure 5 Jupiter flaming fusion plume out-lined at dates BP relative to Galilean moonorbits. Straight lines represent icy bodiesformed from the plume as it cooled.

Figure 6 The differences in the GalileanMoons produced by the timing of the vastfiery plume’s slow decline.

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The most obvious class of bodiesformed from the jet as it diminished are themain belt asteroids, evidenced by theirenormous numbers, >10 , orbital ‘families’6

and inclinations consistent with the -22o

latitude of the plume site. The same range ofinclinations apply to the Kuiper belt and Oortcloud bodies. The formation of these bodiesfrom hot gas in a weightless environmentdictates porous, low density bodies, ofteninterpreted as ‘rubble piles’. Theseproperties have been noted on several closepasses of probes to main belt asteroids.

Jupiter’s Temperature ExcessThe temperature excess of Jupiter’s

atmosphere is due to the fusion reactioncontinuing in the impact crater. Althoughsteadily declining for 6,000 years, thisblazing furnace is still producing as muchenergy as the enormous Jupiter receives fromthe Sun, manifested both as heat and thedriving of the pole-to-pole circulation of itsatmosphere. The latter results in a relativelyconstant atmospheric temperaturedistribution from the equator to the poles,leading to the unfortunate assumption thatthe entire planet is hot and therefore gaseous.

The Multiple Zonal VorticesToday, a powerful vortex of hot

gases, over a 10 K, rises rapidly from the6

fusion furnace in the impact basin, less than1,000 km below the cloud tops. It isdeflected westward beneath the visible cloud

layer some 110,000 km by the rapid rotation(41,626 km/h) of Jupiter where it reaches thecloud-tops as the Great Red Spot. Itscounterclockwise rotation is due to theCoriolis effect. The powerful rotation of theGRS produces the highest easterly wind in thesouth equatorial band to its north and thewesterdly wind of the south tropical belt to itssouth (Figures 7 & 8).

The vortex influences the deeperatmosphere in another significant way. Itshorizontally extended component inducessecondary vortices of opposite chirality to itsnorth and south, constrained by the solidsurface of the planet. The combination of thishorizontal vortex and the velocity induced bythe spinning GRS is the means by which thesingular nuclear furnace drives the entirecirculation system. An animated video of thismotion is available at the following site:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/PIA02863_-_Jupiter_surface_motion_animation.gif.

In the equatorial zone, the vortexeffect disappears as the Coriolis effect, alongwith the centrifugal force, induces a verticalmotion of the westerly atmospherice flow,raising it, resulting in a slight dip in the windspeed exactly at the equator (Figure 8).

Figure 7 Vortex from fusion source is sweptwestward beneath cloud-tops by Jupiter’srotation, surfacing as Great Red Spot

Figure 8 The fastest easterly wind coincideswith the northern edge of the GRS. Note thedip in the westerly wind at the equator.

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The (reversal) of the Coriolis effectat the equator interrupts the propagation ofthe vortices through the Equatorial zone, asshown in Figure 8, disrupting the circulationpattern, causing the turbulence visible in thenorth equatorial belt. This causes large swirlsand the gaps in the clouds, revealing the hightemperature radiation from deeper in theatmosphere. Further north, a mirror image ofthe southern winds and vortices is againestablished, conserving energy and angularmomentum.

To generalize, the broad ‘zones’ arethe ‘tops’ of vortices and the narrower ‘belts’are their plunging/rising edges. Thespawning of these multiple vortices to alllatitudes can only occur with the presence ofa hard boundary, the surface of the solidMethane Gas Hydrate Jupiter, less than 1000km below the cloud-tops. The motion of thevortices explains why the Galileo probereported strong winds at depth, whichobviously preclude the touted three cloudlayers.

Great Red SpotThe primary vortex rising from the

incredibly hot fusion site produces the GreatRed Spot extending some 30 km above thecloud tops. Early Galileo photographs of theGRS showed that it is elliptical and tilted,12

with the eastern edge rising higher than thewestern edge. The Galileo infrared imagingspectrometer (NIMS) indicated that top ofthe GRS is at 0.24 bar and the ‘base’ is veryshallow, at 0.7 bar, actually above thearbitrary 1 bar reference level. This apparentshallowness of the GRS has been interpretedas a corroboration of the currently acceptedhypothesis that it is a passive anticyclonicwhirlpool or ‘soliton’ driven by the oppositewinds to its north and south. However, theGalileo view, shown in Figure 9, failed toreveal the extreme horizontal orientation ofthe vortex leading to the Great Red Spot dueto the rapid rotation of Jupiter.

As the hot gases rise from the fusionsource and expand, the reduction in pressurewithin the plume causes considerable waterto condense and fall as snow or ice. Thisaccounts for the increase in water vapordetected by the Galileo probe as it descended

to 22 bar - only 156 km below the 1 barreference ‘surface’, where it ceased tofunction. The water vapor prevented ameasurement of oxygen at this depth and led

2to the mysteriously low measurement of H O.

Jupiter Radiation Through the GRSThe Great Red Spot is not the passive

‘whirlpool’ currently imagined. In addition todriving the wind circulation of the entireatmosphere, it is the source of all the invisiblehigh energy particulate radiation whichencompasses Jupiter, and during the last 6,000years, the entire Jovian system. As the fusionconflagration has subsided and thetemperature in the fusion furnace hasdecreased, the reaction in the heavilydeuterated, closely packed MGH (or MGD)has been reduced to D + p v He + (. The3 +

energy of this remaining reaction, is too lowto destroy the He ions, which are quasi-3 +

stable, with half lives of 400 years. Thisreaction is producing an invisible blizzard ofparticulate radiation, He ions, shooting out3 +

of the Great Red Spot.This ‘terrible storm’ (aegis) was

detected at a rate as high as 2,000 particles/s,by Galileo and Cassini, simultaneously on oneoccasion, at distances as great as 4 AUcoming from the direction of Jupiter withvelocities of 200 km/s and the rotationalperiod of Jupiter. Considering the minusculesolid angle subtended by the spacecraftsensors, the measured radiation was only aninfinitesimal sample of a huge invisibleblizzard of He ions being continuously3 +

emitted from the GRS as Jupiter rotates. TheGalileo NIMS data and images suggested thatthe inner part of the Great Red Spot “probably

Figure 9 Great Red Spot rises above thecloud-tops, is tilted toward the west andejects a vast flow of energetic He ions. 3 +

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represents gas moving upward rapidly”, butthe sheer magnitude of this invisible He 3 +

blizzard has never been imagined. 13

The red color of the GRS is due tocarbon and sulfur, two of the heavy elementspositively identified by the Galileoatmospheric probe, which combine as CS inthe deep hot vortex and form tiny red crystalsat 200 C as it rises and expands.

Since the ‘gas giant’ hypothesisengenders no high speed particulate radiationfrom Jupiter, an elaborate model has beendevised suggesting particles from volcanoeson Io are consistently being accelerated byJupiter’s rotating magnetic field to 200 km/s.Obviously Occam’s Razor favors a source inJupiter itself. The high velocities of the He3 +

particles are simply produced in the fusionreaction itself. They travel through a curvedchimney and exit into space through theGreat Red Spot. This is not surprising in lightof the magnitude and recentness of the plumewhich originated from the same fusionsource.

Recall that the Galileo orbiterinstruments and computer memory wererepeatedly knocked out by unidentified“particulate radiation”. When it approached

jfor its 11 R perijove to get high resolutionimages of the center of the GRS, the softwarestopped running and the mechanical filterwheel jammed. This was the result of thesame high speed He reaction products from3 +

the Great Red Spot causing faults in thesoftware, even at great distances fromJupiter.

Galileo Probe DataConsistent with this interpretation,

the Galileo atmospheric probe reported a“new, intense radiation belt, 10 times asstrong as Earth's Van Allen belts, betweenJupiter's ring and the uppermost atmosphericlayers, reported as“high energy helium ions( He ) of unknown origin”. The radiation 3 +

belt is not aligned with the equator, butinclined at an estimated 10 degrees. This isdue to the emission of the He ions from the3 +

GRS, which is located well below theequator.

The fusion reaction continuallyreleases methane, hydrogen, oxygen,

nitrogen and the entire spectrum of heavyelements from the solid Methane GasHydrate. The elevated fractionation ofdeuterium is not reflected in the atmospheremeasured by the Galileo probe since it isconsumed in the fusion reaction and is tightlybound in the MGH. The continuing supply ofmethane in all the giant planet atmospheres isobviously from impacts on the MGH surfaces.

Because of their distributionthroughout the MGH, the heavy elements arecontinuously being released in the hightemperature environment immediately abovethe crater where they form oxide, sulfide andhydroxide micro-grains. They are carriedabove the cloud-tops by the primary vortexand sprayed into the upper atmosphere by thespinning Great Red Spot , producing the14

unidentified colors of the clouds whichsurround the planet, currently believed to beammonia. This warm heavy element15

material was sensed by the Galileoatmospheric probe when it reported a denserand warmer atmosphere than ‘expected’above the cloud tops. In the MGH hypothesisthis heavy element layer also acts as a heatblanket, further disguising the fusion source.

Proto-Solar D/H and He / He 3 + 4

Considerable analysis has beenperformed on the deuterium to hydrogen(D/H) and helium 3 to helium 4 ( He / He)3 + 4

ratios measured by the Galileo probe underthe assumption that this would reveal theproto-solar makeup of the Sun. In the16

proposed scenario, the composition ofJupiter’s atmosphere is due exclusively to themolecules released from the solid MGHplanet by the 6,000 year-old fusion reactionwhich is still burning, and therefore cannotprovide any information concerning the proto-solar system. Slowing of Jupiter’s Rotation

Since 1910 historical records of thetransit times of the GRS determined bytelescopic observations have been plottedassuming Jupiter’s current rotation rate, basedon cycles in its magnetic field, has remainedconstant for 4.6 billion years (Figure 10). Thishas been interpreted as a ‘drift’ of the GRS,thought to confirm that it is merely a ‘storm’

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on a gaseous planet. However, if the GRSwere free to drift, it would not have remainedat the same latitude on Jupiter for the entire360 years it has been telescopically observed.This would be impossible for a ‘storm’ on aplanet with such a large Coriolis effect. Forexample, consider the northward movementof hurricanes formed at 20 latitude on theo

slowly rotating Earth. In the proposed scenario the plumehas been ejecting an enormous mass at suchhigh velocities, thus angular momentum,during the last 6,000 years, that the rotationof the giant Jupiter had been measurablyslowing down until 1940. This trendprobably stopped due to the reduction of thetemperature in the fusion furnace below athreshold for a more energetic (deuterium-

tritium?) reaction. The apparent increase inrotation rate which then took place from1937 to 1968 was due to the deflation andsettling of the atmosphere. Once that processwas completed Jupiter and the GRS havesettled down to an essentially constantrotation rate. This again emphasizes the veryrecent nature of the events which haveshaped Jupiter ‘right under our noses’.

Sir Fred Hoyle estimated therotational period imparted to Jupiter duringits accretion assuming (apologetically) smallincremental mass captures. His initial result17

was a period of 1 hour. Since the period isnow almost 10 hours, he assumed his initialsimplifications were flawed. However, thereis reason to believe that Jupiter hasexperienced at least three huge impacts

including the latest one 6,000 years ago. Ifeach impact increased Jupiter’s rotationalperiod by three hours, then Hoyle’s initialcalculation may have been quite accurate.

Shoemaker - Levy 9 ‘Main Events’The ‘main events’ associated with the

larger Shoemaker - Levy 9 fragments (G & L)appeared 6 minutes after the initial impacts,lasted over ten minutes, attaining peakintensities much greater than the precursorand the fireball. The MGH hypothesissuggests the only viable explanation: Thelarger fragments penetrated the atmosphereand impacted the deuterated Methane GasHydrate surface of Jupiter triggering nuclearexplosions which produced the observedshock waves traveling outward at 450 m/s fortwo hours (1,620 Km), proving the presenceof a solid surface. The six minute delayspreceding the detection of the most energeticradiation, significantly termed the ‘mainevents’, was the time required for the‘mushroom clouds’ from the surfaceexplosions to reach the cloud tops until theroiling plume became detectable, lasting tenminutes. These plumes emitted spectra of anumber of heavy elements never beforeobserved on Jupiter, including iron,magnesium, silicon, sulfur and carbon. (as

2CS ). The fact that the direct radiation fromthe blast was not detected, is consistent withthe inability to detect the continuing fusionreaction which is the origin of the GRS,attesting to the thickness of the heavy elementcloud layer covering the entire planet.

Juno MWR Experiment“The Juno mission aims to reveal the

story of Jupiter’s formation and details of itsinternal structure.” However, the Micro WaveRadiometer (MWR) wavelengths are designedspecifically to find evidence of the toutedthree cloud layers inherent in the ‘gas giant’hypothesis. The MWR’s sparse coverage, only5 of the 33 orbits, reflects the belief that (a)the cloud layers cover the entire planet, eventhough the Galileo probe failed to detectthem, and (b) because it is anticipated that theradiation encountered by Juno on the first feworbits will rapidly degrade the MWRinstrument.

Figure 10 Historical observations of theGreat Red Spot give a record of Jupitersslowing rotation up to 1940.

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The Methane Gas Hydrate hypothesisdelineates two currently unrecognizedfeatures on Jupiter that could be detected bythe MWR experiment: (a) The nuclear fusionin the crater, which constitutes a point sourceof fusion energy equal to the total solarenergy, 3x10 megawatts (30 x US nuclear6

power capacity); (b) The vortex of hot gases

extending from the fusion source to the GreatRed Spot. The fusion furnace is located atthe same latitude as the GRS (22 S), ano

estimated 110,000 km to the East. Thevortex extends westward, expanding as itrises from the fusion source until it isrevealed as the Great Red Spot (Figure 11).The longitudinal extent of the vortexvirtually guarantees one detection, due to thegreater sensitivity of the six independentwavelength channels in the MWR. Detectionof the fusion reaction, a point source, isproblematic due to the limited orbitcoverage, even with the 20 beam. As theo

orbit precesses, the footprints at the latitudeof interest, 22 S, can increase to as much aso

10 longitude.o

The detection of the extended primaryvortex should lead to the conclusion that it isthe source of the Great Red Spot, and to theMGH as the true composition of Jupiter. IfJuno passes over or just to the west side of theGRS it will be exposed to the constantblizzard of He ions from the fusion reaction3 +

(Figure 9), which caused more than twentysoftware outages on the Galileo orbiter when

jit was as far as 11R from the planet.The MWR is designed specifically to

detect the three cloud layers predicted by the‘gas giant’ hypothesis. As shown in Figure 12,the signals in the different wavelengthchannels are ‘expected’ to originate fromdifferent depths. But the radiometer is apassive instrument, not a radar and also

cannot identify molecular species. If theradiometer experiment detects the predictedfusion and/or the vortex rising to the GRS thedata will have to be interpreted differently.

Juno Radio Science Experiment The Radio Science experiment usesdoppler variations in two frequency bandswhich are transmitted from Earth, detected byJuno, and retransmitted back to Earth (atransponder) to measure the gravitational fieldof the planet. Due to the assumed ‘gas giant’hypothesis, this instrument is designed tosense very small gravitational changes due toradial differences in the interior with depth

Figure 11 IR image - GRS (dark) at left,fusion source (estimated) in crater at right,with vortex between obscured by thevisible cloud layer.

Figure 12 Weighting functions used toassociate MWR wavelengths with depths.Hypothetical three cloud layers also shown.

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and possibly atmospheric density fluctuationsdue to mass wasting.

As a result, it should have sufficientsensitivity to detect solid features on thesurface of Jupiter during the low altitudescience (pole to pole) passes, taking intoaccount the low average density ofdeuterated Methane Gas Hydrate. Theseinclude the impact basin in which the fusionburning is occurring and the range of icemountains extending beneath the vortex.Fortunately, the raw data will be stored in away that small doppler shifts, detectedsecond-by-second, can be examined inminute detail.

Although the original impact andfusion explosion extended hundreds ofmillions of square kilometers on Jupiter’ssurface, the MGH in that region becamemelted, and may have refilled the crater withwater as the fusion reaction decreased, so thecraters will probably not have raised edges.However, considering the enormous massthat was initially blasted into space plus thatejected over the following 6,000 years,estimated to be greater than one Earth mass,there is little doubt that the radio scienceexperiment will reveal the basin in which thefusion is centered.

Another potential surface feature,shown in Figure 8 is anticipated. This wouldresult in a positive gravitational free-airanomaly, as opposed to the crater whichproduces a negative anomaly. As the hotfusion plume rises today, water in itcondenses falls as snow or hail along asection of the longitudinal path from thefusion furnace toward the Great Red Spot.This should leave a linear ice mountain rangeextending westward from the fusion sourcetoward the Great Red Spot at -22 latitude.o

Since this ice has been accumulatingfor at least 85 years, since the slowing ofJupiter’s rotation ceased, around 1940(Figure 10), at which date the higher energyvortex likely extended much further to thewest before reaching the cloud-tops. As aresult, these ice mountain ranges may befound to extend further west than the currentposition of the GRS. Although both theMWR and radio experiments cannot be usedon the same passes, the longitudinal extent of

these features and the coincidence of theirlatitude and longitude greatly improves theprobability of their positive detection andcorrect interpretation.

The Methane Gas Hydrate hypothesispredicts a total of at least three such majorimpacts throughout the solar system history.Although the ancient craters have long frozenover, they and the associated east-west iceranges should still be detectable by the radioexperiment, unless obscured by one of thelater events.

Sneak-Peek Experiment Assignments One revolutionary aspect of the

revised Juno mission plan is a sneak-peekfeature, which places Juno in a 53.5-daypractice run with science instruments on,followed by another 53.5 day period beforethe final engine burn places it into its 14-dayscience orbit. The longer orbit allows moretime for safe mode recovery which, due to thepowerful emission of He particles from the3 +

GRS, will probably be necessary.The primary function of the sneak-

peek period should be to schedule theexperiments so that Juno does not passdirectly over or, more specifically, within 30o

longitude west of the Great Red Spot during aMWR pass. Considering the problems causedby the high energy He particulate radiation3 +

on the Galileo orbiter, which never got closerthan 11Rj, the same radiation willundoubtedly shut down the Juno radiometers(MWR) if they are directly exposed.

The Great Red Spot FadingThe cessation of significant mass

ejection (~1940), the recent shrinking of theGRS and the lowest energy fusion reactionpresently occurring, suggest that the fusionfurnace is approaching its extinction. Atextinction, the GRS will immediatelydisappear along with the multiple zonalvortices. Here’s hoping that Juno completesits mission before that occurs.

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7.In the Rg Veda X.72.8-9 states “Of the eight sons(Adityas) who were born from the (rebounded) body of Aditi,she approached the gods (moved into the solar system) withseven, but cast away [the eighth] Marttanda. Marttanda wasshapeless, so the Adityas (sons of Aditi) changed his shape.An elephant resulted from the pieces of flesh cut away i.e. theplume (Marttanda) was described as an elephant.”

8 . S u p p o r t i n g m a t e r i a l a v a i l a b l e a tcycliccatastrophism.org/Rowsonletter

9. McKinnon W. B., Shenk P.M. Estimate of comet fragmentmasses from impact craters on Callisto and Ganymede,Geophysical Research Letters vol. 22, No.13, p.1829-1833.

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12. Beeton M. J. S. et al. “Galileo’s First Images of Jupiterand the Galilean Satellites”, Science V. 274, 18 Oct. 1996:“Both the small size of the features and their rapid changesare reminiscent of terrestrial thunderstorms. However, theirlinear structure and 300-km spacing of the features aresimilar to slantwise convection on Earth, in which convectiverolls are aligned in the direction of the wind.”

13. Often, g. et al, Science v.274, p.359, 1996

14. Oxford Scientists Uncover the Strange Workings ofJupiter’s Great Red Spot, Fred W. Taylor, UK NationalAstronomy Meeting, March 31, 1998.

1 5 . N A S A G a l i l e o F a c t S h e e t 0 3 0 9http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/galileo0309.pdf “It is still a mystery why only fresh clouds, covering about 1percent of Jupiter, show the ammonia signature while theremaining clouds, which probably also contain ammonia, losetheir sharp spectral signature.”

16.Mahaffy, P. R. et al. “Galileo Probe Measurements of D/Hand He /4He In Jupiter’s Atmosphere”, Space Science3 +

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References