In addition to deep-space communications with planetary spacecraft, the Goldstone Station of the NASA-JPL Deep Space Network performs radio and radar astronomy research. As part of the ongoing NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jupiter Patrol, the 70-meter antenna (Mars) and the 26-meter R&D antenna (Venus) will do radio astronomy on the synchrotron emission from Jupiter's radiation belt, looking for disturbances caused by comet dust.
NASA's Deep Space Network is the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system and the most precise radio navigation network in the world. Its principal responsibilities are to support interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations in the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network is a separate facility of the NASA Office of Space Communications and is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in Pasadena, California.
The Deep Space Network facility at Goldstone, California will perform radio astronomy on the synchrotron emission from Jupiter's radiation belt, looking for disturbances caused by Comet Shoemaker-Levy dust. Radio frequencies at 1.6 GHz, 2.3 GHz, 22 GHz and 44-49 GHz will be observed.
Public Affairs contact: James H. Wilson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., (818) 354-5011.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy Home Page