How we got from dust and gas to life on Earth required a 5 billion year product development cycle, with Jupiter as the master decoder. Without this monster planet that shapes our solar system, we would not exist. That's why NASA's Juno mission, launched in 2011 to explore the big planet, has so much to teach us about our origins. Mission scientist Jonathan Nichols shines wonder and light on this remarkable craft as it flies past Jupiter's fierce defenses with the audacity of a superhero. The images and data returned were eye-opening and challenged scientific assumptions; and the work is not yet finished. Dr Jonathan Nichols received a PhD from the University of Leicester in 2004, with a theoretical thesis on the nature of Jupiter's Northern Lights. He has since held research associate positions at the University of Leicester and Boston University, Massachusetts, working on observations of the auroras of Jupiter and Saturn by the Hubble Space Telescope.
He received a prestigious five-year Science and Technology Facilities Council Advanced Fellowship in 2011 and was appointed Lecturer in 2013.
Dr. Nichols' research continues to work with Hubble Space Telescope data, having obtained time to observe Jupiter, Saturn, Ganymede and the exoplanet WASP-12b, and is currently also working with Juno data as a member of the Juno science team.
He has also contributed to iconic science programs including BBC's Wonders of the Solar System, Stargazing Live, The Sky at Night and Discovery Channel's Jupiter: Close Encounter. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Please take the opportunity to connect and share this video with your friends and family if you find it useful.
