Juno Post-Arrival News Conference

Scientists announced Thursday that measurements from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft detected hydrogen gas, a key energy source for microbial life, in a plume gushing from a vast liquid water ocean buried beneath the icy shell of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

Jupiter may be two months past opposition, but it’s still big, bright and high to the south before 9 pm from the centre of the British Isles. The Galilean moons, their shadows and the Great Red Spot are all on show — plus mutual phenomena of the moons.

In the early evening of Tuesday, 23 February, the rising waning gibbous Moon — one day after full Moon — lies just 3½ degrees from magnitude -2.5 planet Jupiter low in the eastern sky. Jupiter is closest to Earth on Tuesday, 8 March, so now is the time to get acquainted with the solar system’s largest planet.