HSL Seminar: Dr. Scott Bolton (4 p.m., 7/18, 33-206)

Human Systems Lab (HSL) Seminar: Dr. Scott Bolton (4 p.m., 7/18, 33-206)

"The New Jupiter as revealed by Juno"

Dr. Scott Bolton
Associate Vice President
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)
San Antonio, TX

Following its launch in August 2011 and a boost from an Earth flyby in October 2013, Juno arrived at Jupiter on 4 July 2016. From its unique perspective in a highly elongated polar orbit that carries it low over the planet¹s cloud tops every 53 days, Juno is providing a revolutionary new view of Jupiter.    By peering beneath the clouds with a powerful suite of instruments, Juno is fundamentally challenging our basic assumptions about the origin and evolution of gas giants. The mission is not only reshaping our understanding of the planets in our own solar system, but also is providing context to help us interpret observations of large gas-rich planets orbiting other stars. High-resolution imagery returned by Juno’s camera has revealed a myriad of Earth-size cyclones raging in Jupiter¹s atmosphere. Microwave measurements have discovered layers of ammonia clouds stretching to great depths. The atmosphere is not homogeneous, which fundamentally challenges our ideas of how giant planet atmospheres work. Magnetometer observations reveal a stronger and less uniform magnetic field than expected, suggesting that the field originates above the metallic hydrogen region of the planet¹s deep interior.  Images that bridge art and science will be shown (Jupiter is amazing), and Juno¹s image data are all produced by the public, which is a first for NASA.

About the speaker:
Dr. Scott Bolton is an Associate Vice President at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Bolton is also the Principal Investigator for the Juno project, a project within NASA¹s New Frontiers Program.  Prior to being Director at SwRI, Dr. Bolton was a senior scientist and manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for over 25 years. His research area is planetary sciences with a focus on the giant planets and the origin of the solar system. Dr.Bolton was previously a member of the Galileo and Cassini Huygens missions and has also worked on high-energy radiation belt modeling. Dr. Bolton also manages the coordination and development of future NASA mission and instrumentation proposals for Space Science and Engineering Division at SwRI, managing the strategic plan, partnership selection and proposal quality.  Dr. Bolton¹s division includes over 250 scientists and engineers working on planetary, astrophysics, Earth and heliophysics research. Bolton has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley. Among his many awards, he received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 2002, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2012 and the American Ingenuity Award in 2018.