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Science 9 March 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5817, p. 1351
DOI: 10.1126/science.315.5817.1351c
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ScienceScope

A NASA probe heading to Pluto and a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft on its way to a comet will team up in coming weeks in an unusual effort to observe Jupiter. ESA's Rosetta, launched in 2004 and currently in the neighborhood of Mars, will examine the ring of electrically charged particles around the gas giant planet that may stem from volcanic eruptions on its moon Io. Meanwhile, NASA's New Horizons mission (below) sped past Jupiter last week after leaving Earth in January 2006. As the probe uses the planet's gravity to slingshot its way to Pluto, the onboard instruments are monitoring the Jupiter system.

Figure 1
CREDIT: NASA
The roughly simultaneous observations from the two probes could provide a unique set of data on the planet. "We couldn't pass up this opportunity to study Jupiter's meteorology, rings, aurorae, satellites, and magnetosphere," says New Horizons principal investigator S. Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The joint effort augurs well for future international cooperation in space science: Stern takes over as NASA's science chief next month.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)