ATREYA , Sushil

For its beautiful rings, active atmosphere and mysterious magnetic field, Saturn is a fascinating planet. It also holds some of the keys to understanding the formation of our Solar System and the evolution of giant planets in general. While the exploration by the Cassini-Huygens mission has led to great advances in our understanding of the...

Microwave observations by the Juno spacecraft have shown that, contrary to expectations, the concentration of ammonia is still variable down to pressures of tens of bars in Jupiter. We show that during strong storms able to loft water ice into a region located at pressures between 1.1 and 1.5 bar and temperatures between 173K and 188K, ammonia...

International audience

The Juno mission has revolutionized and challenged our understanding of Jupiter. As Juno transitioned into its extended mission, we review the major findings of Jupiter's internal structure relevant to understanding Jupiter's formation and evolution. Results from Juno's investigation of Jupiter's interior structure imply that the planet has...

International audience

International audience

A Saturn entry probe mission concept is presented for in situ studies of the Saturn atmospheric composition, structure, and dynamics to a depth of 10 bars or greater.

The Hera Saturn entry probe mission is proposed as an ESA M-class mission to be piggybacked on a NASA spacecraft sent to or past the Saturn system. Hera consists of an atmospheric probe built by ESA and released into the atmosphere of Saturn by its NASA companion Saturn Carrier-Relay spacecraft. Hera will perform in situ measurements of the...

International audience

International audience

Remote sensing observations suffer significant limitations when used to study the bulk atmospheric composition of the giant planets of our solar system. This impacts our knowledge of the formation of these planets and the physics of their atmospheres. A remarkable example of the superiority of in situ probe measurements was illustrated by the...