| Session Details | |
| Section | PS - Planetary Sciences |
| Session Title | Atmospheres and Interiors of Jupiter and Saturn |
| Main Convener | Prof. Keke Zhang (University of Exeter, United Kingdom) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Kwing Lam Chan (Macau University of Science & Technology, China) |
| Session Description | Jupiter and Saturn have always been prominent in scientific research whilst Jupiter-like exoplanets have also become an important focus of intensive investigation. The Juno spacecraft, launched in August 2011, has arrived at Jupiter in 2016; and the Cassini spacecraft, already in orbit around Saturn, will perform a Juno-like survey of Saturn toward the end of its mission in 2017. These events will produce new data that promise exciting steps forward in our understanding of Jupiter and Saturn. Continued observation and data analysis of extra-solar Jupiters will also yield much new information about these bodies. The accurate new gravity measurements to be provided by the Juno spacecraft, together with accurate theoretical modeling, will enable the resolution of the long-term scientific puzzles about Jupiter and Saturn. Moreover, the high-precision measurements provided by the Juno and Cassini missions, along with relevant theoretical and numerical modeling, will elucidate Jupiter and Saturn interior models, evolution and formation as well as the internal structure of their fast, alternating, cloud level zonal winds in their atmospheres. In this proposed session, the new observational constraints and discoveries from the Juno and Cassini missions will be reported. New observational and theoretical developments of Jovian exoplanets will be presented. Physical interpretations for all these new measurements will be presented, and similarities and differences between the atmospheres and interiors of Jupiter and Saturn and Jupiter-like exoplanets will be discussed. |