Juno, the angular momentum of Jupiter and the Lense-Thirring effect

Abstract

The recently approved Juno mission will orbit Jupiter for one year in a highly eccentric (r_min=1.06R_Jup, r_max=39R_Jup) polar orbit (i=90 deg) to accurately map, among other things, the jovian magnetic and gravitational fields. Such an orbital configuration yields an ideal situation, in principle, to attempt a measurement of the general relativistic Lense-Thirring effect through the Juno's node Omega which would be displaced by about 570 m over the mission's duration. Conversely, by assuming the validity of general relativity, the proposed test can be viewed as a direct, dynamical measurement of the Jupiter's angular momentum S which would give important information concerning the internal structure and formation of the giant planet. The long-period orbital perturbations due to the zonal harmonic coefficients J_L, L=2,3,4,6 of the multipolar expansion of the jovian gravitational potential accounting for its departures from spherical symmetry are a major source of systematic bias. While the Lense-Thirring node rate is independent of the inclination i, the node zonal perturbations vanish for i=90. In reality, the orbit injection errors will induce departures δi from the ideal polar geometry, so that the zonal perturbations will come into play at an unacceptably high level, in spite of the expected improvements in the low-degree zonals by Juno. A linear combination of Omega, the periJove omega and the mean anomaly M cancels out the impact of J_2 and J_6. A two orders of magnitude improvement in the uncanceled J_3 and J_4 would be needed to reduce their bias on the relativistic signal to the percent level; it does not seem unrealistic because the expected level of improvement in such zonals is three orders of magnitude.