2023 April 8

JUICE heading for Jupiter this week

John Rogers

JUICE, the next great Jupiter-bound spacecraft, is scheduled to be launched this Thursday April 13, at 12:15 UT, from the European spaceport in French Guiana.  JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) is a flagship mission of ESA (European Space Agency).  The solar panels should be deployed by 100 minutes after launch, with full deployment over the next 17 days.  It will be launched into a solar orbit that will bring it back for several gravity-assist flybys of Earth and Venus before arriving at Jupiter in 2031.

As JUICE recedes from Earth on the night after launch, experienced observers may be able to image it.  It will be in the south of Leo in a dark sky.   You can obtain an ephemeris from your location from JPL-Horizons, here:

https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons/app.html#/

(Type JUICE for the target body.)

The best views will be from the Far East and Australia, from about 14:00 UT onwards when the solar panels have been deployed.  The brightness will then diminish as the distance from Earth increases; by the time it is visible from western Europe, approaching 150,000 km out, one experienced observer suggests that it might be around mag.13 or 14.

For example, here are ephemerides from JPL-Horizons for Sydney (Australia) then Cambridge (UK), on 2023 April 13:

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HR:MN(UT)  R.A.__(ICRF)__DEC     Elev(deg)  Distance(km)

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Sydney, Australia:

2023-Apr-13:

14:00     09 34 48.15  +00 56 43.9   24.9      29,983

15:00     10 21 47.18  -00 43 25.1   23.3      47,259

16:00     10 44 25.97  -01 21 32.1   16.1      63,490

17:00     10 58 43.44  -01 40 54.2    6.8      78,992

Cambridge, UK:

19:00     11 34 22.54  -06 45 36.2   18.6      104,840

20:00     11 37 04.81  -06 23 10.0   25.0      117,095

21:00     11 39 01.49  -06 04 40.5   29.6      129,230

22:00     11 40 30.19  -05 48 57.2   31.8      141,334

23:00     11 41 43.40  -05 35 17.3   31.3      153,464

2023-Apr-14:

00:00     11 42 50.13  -05 23 13.3   28.2      165,652

01:00     11 43 56.67  -05 12 28.1   22.8      177,905

02:00     11 45 07.16  -05 02 50.1   15.9      190,206

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For information about the mission, including live TV coverage, see the ESA mission web pages, here:

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice

–and especially the science payload web pages, here:

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/juice

(Go to  Mission>Payload  for details of the instruments.)

If you get a sequence of images showing the spacecraft as it departs from the Earth, please post them in the BAA members’ gallery and tell the Jupiter Section Director.