[ suspenseful music plays ] narrator: Jupiter.
The most extreme planet in the solar system.
If you are looking for a planet
That is completely different than the earth,
Jupiter's where you're gonna go.
Jupiter is a turbulent world
Of monster magnetic fields
And endless mega storms.
Jupiter has storms so large,
They could eat the earth whole.
Generations of astronomers
Have tried to solve the mysteries of jupiter.
Finally, nasa's juno probe is revealing new evidence
That unlocks why this planet is so savage.
With juno, we're able to see jupiter
From the inside out.
Jupiter turned out to be
Nothing like what we expected.
What mysterious energy drives jupiter's eternal storms
And what powers the biggest magnetic field
Of any planet in the solar system?
We plunge into jupiter's atmosphere
And reach deep into its core to reveal how it grew
Into the solar system's fiercest planet
And investigate whether this alien mega world
Even unlocks the origins of life on earth.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
♪♪
One planet in our solar system dwarfs all the rest.
Jupiter.
Made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium,
Jupiter's mass is 1,300 times greater than earth.
When it comes to the planets in our solar system,
Really, the story is all about jupiter.
Add up all the masses, 70% is in that one planet, alone.
Narrator: Jupiter isn't just big.
It is also extreme.
Jupiter has a magnetic field so powerful
That it tears away charged particles from its moons
To make supersize aurorae at the poles.
♪♪
The temperature at the center of the planet
Is 41,000° fahrenheit.
That's hotter than the surface of the sun.
♪♪
Astronomers have studied jupiter for centuries,
But its biggest mysteries still confound them.
Why is jupiter so extreme?
What are the hidden processes
That drive the planet's ferocity?
♪♪
Man: Three, two, one.
Ignition and liftoff
Of the atlas v with juno on a trek to jupiter.
♪♪
Narrator: In 2011,
Nasa launches mission juno to unlock these mysteries.
The juno probe carries a suite of super advanced instruments --
A particle detector,
Infrared and ultraviolet imaging,
And a magnetometer,
To peer deeper into jupiter than ever before.
♪♪
Tremblay: You can only learn so much about a planet
By looking at it through a telescope.
Sometimes you just have to go there.
And so juno is a payload
Of some of the most advanced instrumentation
That we've ever sent into the void of space
And it took this epic journey to jupiter,
This incredibly distant planet.
[ whirs ]
[ beeping ]
Narrator: Juno arrives at jupiter in 2016.
♪♪
The probe's onboard camera beams back to earth,
Spectacular images of the surface of this mega planet.
♪♪
Juno gets so close and sees it in such detail
That I've seen images of this planet
That I didn't even recognize as being jupiter.
♪♪
The color palette of jupiter is beyond belief,
All of these oranges and reds and deep browns and yellows.
♪♪
I have to sometimes remind myself
That I'm looking at a planet because it's just so beautiful.
I've never seen astronomical images like these before.
♪♪
Narrator: These swirling bands look tranquil from orbit.
But it's a different story up close.
These bands are actually giant storms,
Their jet streams many times faster
Than the jet streams on earth.
And not only that, they're going in different directions,
One cloud band going against the other one.
The turbulence that's created is absolutely spectacular.
Narrator: The wind speeds inside these bands
Reach 370 miles an hour.
♪♪
Winds this strong twist the gas into super cyclones.
[ thunder rumbles ]
♪♪
The largest of jupiter's storms is the famous great red spot.
♪♪
But a riddle remains for juno to solve --
What powers the planets mega winds and super storms?
♪♪
Astronomers believe
That measuring the depth of the storm bands on jupiter
Could reveal the source
Of the mysterious energy that drives them.
♪♪
The sun powers the weather here on earth.
Its radiation penetrates the earth's atmosphere
And heats the surface of our planet.
It is this heat that drives the rains and weather we experience.
♪♪
Traditional telescopes cannot see
Through the colorful, swirling bands wrapped around jupiter...
♪♪
...So astronomers cannot tell exactly what source of energy
Drives jupiter's extreme weather.
♪♪
[ beeping ]
Juno uses jupiter's own gravity to measure
Exactly how far the storm bands reach into the gas giant.
♪♪
The density of the storm bands
Affects jupiter's gravity.
♪♪
This gravity changes juno's velocity
As it passes over the planet.
♪♪
Denser areas with stronger gravity
Pull the probe inwards.
Areas of weaker gravity release it outwards.
♪♪
By plotting the shifts in juno's orbit,
Scientists build up
A super accurate density map of jupiter.
♪♪
Scientists can gauge the true size of storms
Raging through the planet's atmosphere
By measuring juno's speed.
♪♪
Plait: As juno moves around jupiter,
We can measure tiny changes in its velocity
And those depend on changes of the mass
Of the planet underneath it.
So, by measuring the speed of juno as it travels,
We're actually seeing the different masses
Of the different storm bands on jupiter.
♪♪
Narrator: The more massive a storm band is,
The deeper it extends into jupiter.
The measurements that juno takes
Reveal that these bands reach 1,800 miles into the planet.
What juno is showing us is that these things go
Very, very deep, surprisingly deep.
♪♪
Narrator: The huge depth of the storm bands
Is an important clue in solving the mystery
Of what drives the extreme weather on jupiter.
♪♪
Oluseyi: Here on earth, the weather is controlled
By energy from the sun.
That's what powers it.
♪♪
Jupiter is five times farther away
From the sun than the earth is
And its atmosphere is super thick,
So it can't be energy from the sun
That's powering all these storms.
♪♪
Narrator: What is the mysterious source of energy
That powers jupiter's mega storms?
♪♪
And how does this gas giant
Produce the largest magnetic field
Of any planet in the solar system?
♪♪
[ suspenseful music plays ]
Narrator: Jupiter is the biggest and most extreme world
In our solar system.
[ suspenseful music plays ]
Nasa's juno probe reveals that jupiter's mega storms
Stretch 1,800 miles into the planet.
♪♪
But the sun is too far away
For its energy to power winds this deep.
♪♪
The immense energy that has
To be powering these incredible storms
Can't be coming from outside jupiter.
It has to be coming from within it.
So what could that energy source be?
♪♪
[ thunder crashes ]
♪♪
Narrator: Researchers in marseilles, France,
Run innovative laboratory experiments to find out.
♪♪
This tank holds 130 gallons of water
And tens of thousands of fluorescent plastic beads.
♪♪
These beads represent the gas
In jupiter's thick atmosphere.
♪♪
The researchers spin the tank to mimic jupiter's rotation.
♪♪
Powerful pumps at the bottom of the tank blast the water.
This simulates energy that radiates from inside jupiter.
♪♪
A camera tracks the precise movement of the beads.
♪♪
The beads arrange into alternately spinning bands.
♪♪
And these bands are very deep,
Just like the real storm bands on jupiter.
♪♪
The researchers believe these results show
That a huge concentration of heat energy inside jupiter
Could be what is driving the planet's extreme weather.
♪♪
Astronomers think that the way jupiter forms
Four and a half billion years ago
Unlocks why the planet is so hot.
♪♪
A disc of gas and dust
Surrounds the newborn sun in the early solar system.
This is where protoplanets form.
♪♪
Gravity brings together vast amounts of matter...
♪♪
...To form the core of a proto-jupiter.
♪♪
The young planet captures
Vast amounts of hydrogen and helium gas.
♪♪
This cranks up the pressure inside it.
♪♪
The weight of the gas pushes jupiter's inner pressure
To over 20 million times that of a car tire.
This pressure superheats the planet's core.
♪♪
Astronomers believe this supersized hot core
Unlocks the mystery
Of why the weather on jupiter is so extreme.
♪♪
Reaching deep inside jupiter
Reveals how the planet's superheated center
Drives its violent weather.
♪♪
In the core,
Temperatures reach 41,000° fahrenheit.
That's hotter than the surface of the sun.
♪♪
The heat radiates to jupiter's outer layers
And vast convection currents.
♪♪
These warm the atmosphere from the inside out.
They drive roaring winds in the cloud tops...
♪♪
...And create jupiter's iconic storm bands.
♪♪
Plait: The interior of jupiter is very hot.
This is actually heat left over
From its formation 4.6 billion years ago.
Because jupiter is the most massive,
The biggest planet in the solar system,
It has the most amount of heat available
To power these gigantic storms.
♪♪
Narrator: Jupiter's super hot core unlocks the mystery
Of what powers the largest storms in the solar system.
♪♪
But jupiter has more puzzles to solve.
♪♪
Nasa's pioneering juno probe
Carries a special infrared camera.
♪♪
It sees parts of jupiter
That are invisible to other types of camera.
♪♪
It captures this mysterious image.
The picture shows a huge aurora at jupiter's south pole.
♪♪
It is larger than the size of the earth.
♪♪
Plait: We knew jupiter had aurorae.
We've seen these using hubble.
What juno showed us is the size and scale
And power of jupiter's aurorae.
They are far larger and far more powerful,
Far brighter, than anything we've ever seen on earth.
♪♪
Narrator: Aurorae occur on earth
When charged particles from the sun slam
Into our planet's magnetic field.
♪♪
Some of these charged particles, called ions,
Funnel down towards the earth's north and south poles.
♪♪
The result is a spectacular light show,
Like the aurora borealis.
♪♪
The sun is too far away from jupiter
For its ions to create the aurorae that juno sees.
Instead, the ions come
From jupiter's fiery moon
Io.
Oluseyi: Io is the most volcanic body
In the solar system
And it's also a small body, so, when it erupts,
Not all the volcanic material falls back on io.
Some of it goes into orbit around jupiter
And some of it actually follows jupiter's magnetic field lines
And collides with jupiter's atmosphere at the poles,
Causing aurorae.
♪♪
Jupiter's supersized aurora
Means that the planet must have a supersized magnetic field.
♪♪
And this creates a big mystery
For planetary scientists to solve.
♪♪
Planets like earth
Have a churning ball of molten metal at their core.
This moving liquid metal acts like a dynamo.
♪♪
It generates a magnetic field that stretches out into space.
♪♪
Jupiter is a gas giant made almost entirely from hydrogen.
♪♪
Scientists believe that it contains
No vast reservoir of liquid metal,
So what inside jupiter
Creates the planet's mega magnetic field?
♪♪
And why does this gas giant
Have, not two poles, but three?
♪♪
Narrator: Nasa's pioneering juno probe
Confirms that jupiter has the largest magnetic field
Of any planet in the solar system.
Jupiter is made almost entirely of hydrogen gas,
So what inside jupiter acts like a dynamo
To create the planet's mega magnetic field?
♪♪
Scientists at the lawrence livermore national laboratory
Believe that the huge pressure deep inside jupiter
Unlocks the mystery.
♪♪
Here, they use powerful lasers
To simulate how this pressure changes gases
Into weird, new states of matter.
♪♪
The scientists trap a sample of hydrogen in a chamber...
♪♪
...And then focus their lasers onto it.
♪♪
This creates shock waves
That, for a few billionths of a second,
Simulate the extreme pressure inside jupiter.
♪♪
The atoms in the hydrogen are squeezed together so tightly
That its properties change beyond recognition.
♪♪
The hydrogen transforms from a clear gas
Into a substance that reflects light,
A telltale sign that it now behaves like a metal.
♪♪
Scientists believe that a similar
Super pressurized form of hydrogen
Exists inside jupiter.
♪♪
In the interior of jupiter,
There are incredible forces pressing everything together,
So, in the case of all those hydrogen atoms,
They're crushed so close together,
They begin to share electrons.
That's the definition of a metallic bond
And that means it can conduct electricity.
♪♪
Narrator: This weird type of metallic hydrogen
Solves the mystery of what generates
The planet's supersized magnetic field.
♪♪
Materials that conduct electricity
Can generate magnetic fields
And jupiter's massive size means that it could contain
A vast reservoir of this bizarre form of hydrogen.
♪♪
Deep inside jupiter
Lies an ocean of shiny, metallic hydrogen.
♪♪
This form of hydrogen might make up
As much as 50% of jupiter's mass.
♪♪
The planet's rotation spins the metallic hydrogen.
This movement creates electric currents
And the dynamo that generates
The largest planetary magnetic field in the solar system.
♪♪
The magnetic field is so large
That it envelops jupiter's moons.
♪♪
It pulls charged particles
From these moons to jupiter's poles.
♪♪
These particles slam into the planet
To create jupiter's spectacular aurorae.
♪♪
Jupiter's super powerful magnetic field
Creates one of the most stunning light displays
In the solar system.
[ beeping ]
Juno carries a magnetometer
As part of its suite of super sensitive instruments.
♪♪
The magnetometer creates the first detailed map
Of jupiter's massive magnetic field.
♪♪
This data reveals something extraordinary.
♪♪
Jupiter's supersized magnetic field is a mess.
We've known for a while that jupiter has
A tremendously strong magnetic field,
But, until juno got closer,
We had no idea how chaotic it is.
♪♪
Narrator: Juno shows that jupiter's magnetic field
Points outwards from the planet's north pole
And inwards to its south pole.
But a portion of its magnetic field rejoins jupiter
At a circular spot close to the giant planet's equator.
♪♪
It looks like jupiter has, not two poles, but three.
♪♪
Imagine going camping on jupiter.
How could you use a compass to get around
When there's three poles?
It just doesn't work.
♪♪
Narrator: What mysterious process going on inside jupiter
Creates this weird anomaly?
♪♪
[ beeping ]
The super sensitive instruments onboard juno reveal a clue.
♪♪
They show that many of the largest,
Most violent storms on jupiter
Are near the planet's equator.
♪♪
Juno has revealed to us that jupiter has
Many, many storms going on at all times,
The most famous of which is the great red spot,
Which has lasted for centuries.
♪♪
Narrator: Jupiter's surface spins fastest at the equator.
♪♪
Juno measures wind speeds and some equatorial storms
In excess of 300 miles per hour.
[ beeping ]
Scientists believe that the winds inside these mega storms
Unlock the mystery of what produces
Jupiter's weird magnetic field.
♪♪
1,800 miles beneath the surface of jupiter...
♪♪
...Is an ocean of metallic hydrogen.
The winds raging across its surface are so powerful
That they create fast-moving currents in the liquid metal.
♪♪
These currents upset the balance of jupiter's dynamo.
♪♪
They shift and shear
The giant planet's mega magnetic field...
♪♪
...And create a third magnetic pole, near the equator.
♪♪
Only on a planet so weird could super fast winds
Change a magnetic field the size of the sun.
♪♪
Every planet's magnetic field is a little strange.
They all have their little quirks,
But nothing like this has ever been seen.
♪♪
[ beeping ]
Narrator: The data from juno
Unlocks the mystery of jupiter's weird,
Shapeshifting magnetic field.
Now, the probe turns to solving more
Of the mega planet's mysteries.
♪♪
Why is the center of jupiter a jumbled mix of gas and rock
And how does it unlock the birth
Of the largest planet in the solar system?
♪♪
[ suspenseful music plays ]
Narrator: Jupiter is the largest and most extreme planet
In the solar system.
Nasa's juno probe is on a mission
To unlock its secrets.
♪♪
Juno's next objective is to reveal, for the first time,
What lies at the center of jupiter.
♪♪
Astronomers believe that a picture
Of what is happening at the heart of the planet
Will solve one of its biggest mysteries --
How was jupiter born?
♪♪
We really don't understand how gas giants like jupiter formed.
That is one of the prime mysteries
That juno is designed to help solve.
♪♪
[ beeping ]
♪♪
Solving this puzzle rests on astronomers
Finding out if jupiter
Has a core made from rock or a core made from gas.
♪♪
If the core is rocky,
Then that means that it formed like the other planets
In the inner solar system formed, planets like earth,
Smaller objects colliding together and stuck together
Until you built up a planetary-sized body.
Narrator: A core made from gas will tell
An entirely different story of jupiter's creation.
♪♪
It will be evidence that jupiter was born
Through the collapse of a giant cloud
Of gas and dust in the early solar system.
In that case, there really wouldn't be
Anything solid in the core at all.
It'd be more like the sun.
So, the core was a big deal.
What was the core like?
Was it going to be solid?
Was it gonna be gaseous?
[ beeping ]
Narrator: Instruments onboard juno
Measure the shape and size of jupiter's magnetic
And gravitational fields to find out.
♪♪
Astronomers on earth crunch this data
To build up a detailed image
Of what lies at the heart of the mega planet.
♪♪
They discover that the interior of jupiter
Is far stranger than anyone could have imagined.
♪♪
Jupiter's core is not exclusively rock, or gas.
It's a weird mixture of both.
♪♪
It seems to have a lot of rocky stuff and metal stuff,
But it also has a lot of gassy stuff,
So it's not like a distinct entity.
It just sort of fades away with distance from the center.
It's really just kind of fuzzy.
♪♪
Narrator: Many astronomers think this new evidence
Indicates that jupiter is born as a rocky planet.
It then accumulates huge quantities of gas
To grow to the size it is today.
♪♪
But what causes the rock and gas inside jupiter to mix
And make a fuzzy core?
One theory is that a young jupiter
Is involved in a cosmic crash.
We think that there was once, at least,
A solid mass of rock and metal in the core,
But something has clearly stirred it up
Or even destroyed it and broken it up.
Narrator: What is the object that crashes into jupiter
And shatters the core of this mighty planet?
♪♪
Planetary scientists have a way to find out.
♪♪
They build models of the early solar system
Inside supercomputers.
♪♪
They then smash objects into virtual jupiters,
To test what type of collision
Produces the fuzzy core that juno sees.
The researchers discover that just one scenario results
In the weird mix of rock and gas
At the center of the mega planet.
♪♪
Four and a half billion years ago,
A rocky planet 10 times more massive than earth
Heads straight for jupiter.
[ explosion ]
The planet collides head-on.
♪♪
It plows through the atmosphere towards the heart of jupiter.
[ explosions ]
And smashes the rocky core at the center of the gas giant
Into billions of pieces.
♪♪
These fragments mix
With the surrounding metallic hydrogen...
♪♪
...To make the weird, fuzzy core that juno detects.
♪♪
So the most likely culprit is a direct collision with jupiter.
Some other planet, carrying an enormous amount of energy,
Strikes the core of jupiter like a bullet
And injects that energy
Into the core of the planet itself.
It deposits that energy and breaks up the core,
And that might be causing the so-called fuzziness
That we see in the data.
[ explosions ]
♪♪
Narrator: The theory works inside a computer simulation,
But how is it possible, in reality,
For jupiter to collide with another planet?
♪♪
The answer could lie with alien worlds
Light-years away from earth.
Astronomers call them exoplanets.
♪♪
In 2017,
Astronomers discover a super strange exoplanet
Orbiting the star kelt-9,
670 light-years away from earth.
♪♪
Thaller: There was something truly extraordinary
About the star kelt-9.
Kelt-9 had a dip in brightness every one and a half days.
There was a planet close enough to the star,
It went around every one and a half days.
Not only that, it was a giant planet,
Over two times the mass of jupiter.
Narrator: Astronomers name this weird world kelt-9b.
♪♪
Kelt-9 is a gas giant, like jupiter.
But, it is 11 times closer to its star
Than mercury is to our sun.
Astronomers call these types of planets hot jupiters.
Kelt-9b is a super extreme planet.
This is one of the hottest exoplanets
That we've ever found.
The atmosphere of that planet is hotter
Than the surface of most stars.
[ beeping ] narrator: Measurements
From the spitzer space telescope reveal
That this extreme heat is ripping apart kelt-9b.
[ beeping ]
Plait: The heat from its star is blowing
Its atmosphere away like a comet.
It's losing its atmosphere over time,
Which means that, eventually, it's all going to go away
And, at some point in the future,
All that's gonna be left is whatever core this planet has.
♪♪
Narrator: Kelt-9b and other hot jupiters are enigmas.
♪♪
The science says that these huge planets
Can't form this close to a star.
♪♪
To form a gas giant like jupiter,
You need really cold conditions, far from the host star,
Where icy materials can glue themselves together
And accrete gas as the planet grows.
So, when we see these really hot jupiters
Really, really close to the stars that they're orbiting,
We know they can't have formed there.
♪♪
Narrator: Kelt-9b must have moved towards its star
After it forms in a colder region of space.
♪♪
How does this characteristic of hot jupiters
Reveal why our jupiter collides with another planet?
♪♪
And can an epic journey across the solar system
Solve the mystery of how earth got its oceans?
[ explosion ]
♪♪
[ suspenseful music plays ] [ beeping ]
Narrator: Nasa's juno probe
Discovers that the center of jupiter
Is a weird mixture of rock and gas.
♪♪
Astronomers believe that a collision
With another planet could explain this fuzzy core.
[ explosions ]
Telescope observations reveal that jupiter-like worlds
In other parts of the galaxy move towards their stars.
♪♪
These journeys could solve the mystery
Of how our jupiter collides with another planet.
♪♪
Four and a half billion years ago,
Jupiter forms in a disc of gas and dust
That surrounds the newborn sun.
♪♪
It forms early, in a solar system
That is a mess of rocks and planetary embryos.
♪♪
The gravity of the disc itself gradually,
Over a few million years,
Pulls jupiter towards the sun.
♪♪
Jupiter advances towards its star with every new orbit.
♪♪
As it moves inwards,
Jupiter is a wrecking ball for everything in its path.
♪♪
When you look at the wonderfully stable
Solar system that we see today,
It's almost impossible to imagine
How violent and dramatic it was in the beginning.
At this time, there were collisions
Left, right, and center.
The solar system was very much a work in progress.
♪♪
Narrator: Jupiter is on the fast track to becoming a hot jupiter.
♪♪
One theory is that another planet comes to the rescue.
♪♪
So it seems now as if our solar system
Was headed towards some kind of unsalvageable disaster,
Jupiter moving closer and closer in,
Disrupting orbits of planets as it went.
♪♪
Farther out in the disc, more giant planets began to form
And, specifically, saturn.
Every time it orbited around,
It gave jupiter a little gravitational tug back
Into the outer parts of the solar system.
♪♪
The jupiter we have today almost didn't exist,
But, luckily for it,
Saturn formed close enough to it
And its gravitational attraction slowed it down,
So it saved it from the fate
Of moving in closer to the sun than mercury even is
And then getting boiled away.
♪♪
Narrator: Many astronomers believe that jupiter's journey towards,
And then away from the sun,
Stirs up the protoplanets in our solar system.
♪♪
Some of them change places and switch orbits.
♪♪
The mayhem that jupiter unleashes
Could explain how one such planet
Ends up on a collision course with the gas giant.
♪♪
Our early solar system was a chaotic and messy place
And jupiter moving through it was a really big target.
So there's a surprisingly high chance
For jupiter, in the early solar system,
To collide with a massive body.
♪♪
Narrator: Data from juno unlocks the mysteries
Of jupiter's early history.
♪♪
Scientists now think that jupiter's migration
Is a defining event for our solar system.
♪♪
When you have a planet as massive as jupiter
Moving through our early solar system,
It's gonna have some wild effects.
♪♪
Narrator: How does jupiter's journey
Shape the solar system that we know today?
♪♪
Plait: Jupiter is the largest, the most massive planet
In the solar system.
Clearly, it has profoundly affected
Everything else around it.
The mystery is, how?
In detail, specifically, what did it do?
[ explosion ]
Narrator: A fuzzy core is evidence
That jupiter collides with a giant planet
During an epic migration across the solar system.
♪♪
[ explosion ] the gravity of saturn
Pulls jupiter back
And saves the mega planet from becoming a hot jupiter.
♪♪
Scientists think that this journey
Might unlock one of earth's biggest mysteries --
How did oceans form on our planet?
♪♪
Tremblay: Water is essential for all life on earth.
It covers 70% of our planet's surface
And, yet, it actually has no business being here.
♪♪
Narrator: The young earth is born dry
Around four and a half billion years ago.
♪♪
It's close proximity to the sun
Means that lighter ingredients, like water,
Evaporate into space.
♪♪
If the earth formed in its present location
In the solar system,
It was way too hot for all of this water
To actually be part of the original planet,
It had to come from somewhere else.
Narrator: Astronomers think that the source of water on earth
Lies in a frozen region of space farther away from the sun.
♪♪
When the sun ignites,
Its heat creates a water-free zone around it.
♪♪
The earth forms dry in this barren region of space.
♪♪
Further out, near jupiter, orbit millions of asteroids.
♪♪
Here, it is cold enough for water to exist, as ice.
♪♪
Water freezes inside the asteroids.
♪♪
They smash together to make bigger space rocks,
That contain vast amounts of water...
♪♪
...Enough to fill entire oceans,
If they were to hit earth.
♪♪
But what sends them flying through space
Towards our planet?
♪♪
And is it possible that these rocks
Also contain the building blocks of life?
[ explosion ]
♪♪
[ suspenseful music plays ]
Narrator: Astronomers believe that a bombardment
Of water-rich asteroids billions of years ago
Seeds earth's oceans.
♪♪
But what sends these space rocks flying
Towards our planet?
♪♪
A clue is locked inside meteorites.
♪♪
Meteorites are fragments of larger asteroids in space
That break away and fall to earth.
♪♪
The tiny grains of dust inside meteorites
Tell astronomers where in the solar system
Their parent asteroids are born.
♪♪
Thaller: Scientists have known for a while
There are two different types of meteorites,
Two families that had to form
In different parts of the solar system.
Some meteorites are very rich in minerals that contain water.
Others are much more dry.
♪♪
Narrator: Astronomers find both wet and dry meteorites on earth.
♪♪
If these two types of space rocks form inside asteroids
In different areas of the solar system,
Then it is evidence that something in the past
Jumbles them together.
♪♪
Scientists believe only one object in the solar system
Is powerful enough to mix together
Entire asteroid fields --
Jupiter.
♪♪
As jupiter migrated,
Objects were thrown to higher orbits, lower orbits,
Into the sun, out of the solar system.
It really mixed things up.
Narrator: Around four and a half billion years ago,
Jupiter is on its return journey,
Away from the sun.
♪♪
The planet passes through separate regions
Of dry and wet asteroids.
♪♪
Jupiter's huge gravity
Flings these space rocks across the solar system.
♪♪
The mix of asteroids bombard the young earth.
[ explosions ]
♪♪
It's possible that these frozen rocks
Bring with them the water that forms our planet's oceans.
There was a time in the history of earth
When millions upon millions of asteroids
Rained down on the surface.
Before, we didn't really understand
Why that would have happened.
Now, we look back to jupiter
And think that maybe jupiter is responsible.
♪♪
[ explosion ]
Narrator: Scientists think it is possible
[ explosion ] that the asteroids that jupiter flings at earth
Bring more than just water.
In 2015,
Nasa's new horizons probe visits a strange body
Way out in the farthest reaches of our solar system.
♪♪
The cameras on the probe send back photos of arrokoth,
A misshapen object in the kuiper belt,
A ring of billions of space rocks
Beyond the orbit of neptune.
♪♪
Some of the images reveal
That a strange, red, tar-like substance
Covers parts of the surface of the frozen object.
♪♪
Analysis reveals that these red areas contain
Organic chemistry.
♪♪
These chemicals are the raw materials
For making amino acids, the building blocks of dna.
♪♪
[ explosions ] some scientists think
That the frozen water locked inside the asteroids
That bombard the young earth contain these seeds of life.
♪♪
Given all that jupiter did to the solar system
And its destructive power,
It's quite a surprise to find that
It may be what delivered the goods to earth
That were necessary for life to get started on our planet.
♪♪
[ beeping ]
Narrator: Nasa's juno probe is unlocking the mysteries
Of the largest and most extreme planet in the solar system.
♪♪
The mission reveals that jupiter is more alien and more powerful
Than astronomers ever thought possible.
♪♪
And that this gas mega planet
Plays a leading role in shaping the solar system we see today.
♪♪
We always knew that jupiter was extreme,
But now, with juno flying above its beautiful clouds
And peering deep into its heart,
We have an idea of what makes this guy tick.
♪♪
Jupiter used to be just an interesting, beautiful,
Giant planet in the outer solar system.
Now, we understand that it might've influenced
The beginning of life on earth.
♪♪
Narrator: From its super massive, ever-changing magnetic field...
♪♪
...To its super powerful mega storms
That reach deep into the atmosphere...
♪♪
...And it's fuzzy core,
The echo of an ancient collision with a giant planet...
♪♪
[ beeping ] ...Thanks to juno,
Jupiter is finally giving up its secrets.
♪♪