When I first heard that those
poindexters down at NASA were planning to launch another one of their
cornfangled probes at the planet Jupiter, I was concerned. We've bugged the giant planet quite a lot in recent decades, with those
Voyager
flybys and the
Galileo
intrusiveness.
But all of that pales in comparison to the
interplanetary indignity of the
Juno
probe. This elliptically-orbiting robotic voyeur will
literally be looking at Jupiter
where the sun don't shine.
This outrage is simply
outrageous!
If the planet Jupiter wanted us to see its poles, it would show them to us with a nice sideways orbit. Like
Uranus
. But the giant gas giant obviously values its privacy, keeping its
nether regions far from the
ecliptic
.
When
Juno
arrives in July 2016, it will be taking the most invasive images of Jupiter ever made. Sure, these
Jovian upskirt photos might tell us all about the planet's magnetosphere and internal structure and auroral activity, but the astronomical indecency is most definitely going to piss the gas giant off. Mark my words.
It's going to take the astrologers years, perhaps decades to atone for this
iniquity
. If they can calm Jupiter at all. After we've embarrassed the planet like this, we might just lose the protection of its gravity well forever. It may even decide to throw a few excess
trojans at us, out of red-spotted spite.
If we manage to survive the coming apocalii in late 2011 and 2012, come 2016 our doom may be
cooked!
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