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Welcome to the Radio JOVE Project !

Radio JOVE students and amateur scientists observe and analyze natural radio emissions of Jupiter, the Sun, and our galaxy.

  • Build and use your own Decametric Radio Telescope
  • Follow Live Observations Online
  • Teachers, See Our Lesson Plans and other Educational Materials

NEWS & FEATURES

Jupiter Season Passes Midway Point

On October 29th, Earth made its closest approach of the year to Jupiter. With the Sun, Earth, and Jupiter lined up, Jupiter was at opposition and transited at local midnight. As we pull ahead of the King of Planets, Jupiter will be high in the sky after sunset. Radio observations can now be made during those more civilized evening hours. Its a great time to listen. December got off to a fantastic start with a phenomenal Io-B storm on December 1.

Radio JOVE at the 2011 Starry Night event

Gainesville, Florida — Radio astronomy was represented by several Radio JOVE members at the annual Starry Night event at the University of Florida on November 3rd.

Thumbnail of RJ participants at Starry Night
Radio JOVE participants (L to R) Dave Typinski, Francisco Reyes, and Wes Greenman.

Starry Night is a program designed to bring awareness of astronomy and science to the public by offering free activities and displays. The outdoor portion consisted of several telescopes viewing the Moon, Jupiter, and several close binary stars. Radio astronomy was represented by the Radio JOVE display.

The Radio JOVE exhibit consisted of a single dipole strung between two palm trees (it is Florida, after all!), a Jove receiver with a real-time strip chart, and an SDR-14 with a real-time spectrogram. Visitors were also treated to recorded examples of Jovian S-bursts and L-bursts.

More info:
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/education/starrynight.htm

Jupiter Kicks Butt

Thumbnail of Io-B storm chart Fantastic Io-B storms received recently. Some bursts were over a million degrees (about 15 dB above the galactic background). There has also been enhanced non-Io-A activity. Jupiter just passed opposition so it is transiting before midnight now. Its a great time to observe - so dust of your Jove antenna, fire up that radio, and submit your results to the Jove archive. We have been thru a long spell of rather weak Jupiter signals, but now conditions are much more favorable (the Jovicentric declination De of Earth is near its peak value). We expect Jupiter to turn in a great performance over the next few years.

RJers catch nighttime solar burst

Thumbnail of night-time solar burst chart While it has been known to happen, observing a solar radio burst in the middle of the night is a rare event. On August 4, 2011, a number of folks in the Western Hemisphere captured a strong solar burst near midnight, U.S. Eastern time (03:58Z). The same event was observed elsewhere, including just before sunrise in Western Europe.

collage of Radio JOVE observing

DON'T MISS THESE

The Radio JOVE Bulletin
Our newsletters contain useful and fascinating information for RJers.
Juno Mission on its way to Jupiter
Lego figurines launched with JunoNASA's next mission to Jupiter is on its way to make an in-depth study of the gas giant. Among the science to be conducted by Juno are high resolution measurements of Jupiter's magnetic fields and its auroral currents.
The Birthplace of Planetary Radio Astronomy
Jupiter's natural radio emissions were first discovered near Seneca, Maryland. In 2005, Radio JOVE and the Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism recognized the 50th anniversary of this discovery and helped publicize this milestone with a variety of events and presentations.

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The Radio JOVE Project is a joint effort of

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