Episode 4 - Jupiter: The Sun's Secret Twin
Jupiter is a planet of extremes. Twice the size of all the other planets in our solar system combined it’s formed almost entirely from Hydrogen just like the sun. Yet little is known about this super sized world.
Now NASA have launched a billion dollar space mission called JUNO to explore Jupiter’s long-held secrets. We join JUNO scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to unlock the mystery of intense radiation belts around the planet. In New York a dramatic experiment with molten rock reveals what could be supercharging this deadly radiation.
Conditions in space around Jupiter are extreme – but delving into the planets mysterious clouds exposes an even more dangerous and violent world. Stunning CGI animation will rip open the planets gassy surface to uncover an astonishing phenomenon - a rainstorm of solid diamonds. A wonder that sounds impossible – but that scientists in Wales think they can recreate on earth.
Alongside churning cyclones that rage for centuries and pressures so extreme they crush hydrogen gas into a metal this journey to unpack Jupiter’s riddles reveals a planet of unimaginable ferocity. It’s a planet so bizarre that some scientists now think it almost became a star – our sun’s secret twin.