The most accurate clock of its kind to be sent to Jupiter
Date: January 13, 2021
Israelis are not usually known for their exceptional punctuality, but Prof. Yohai Kaspi and Dr. Eli Galanti of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Earth and Planetary Sciences designed a clock so accurate, it will lose less than a second in ten million years. Kaspi is the PI of the atmospheric science experiment of the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission to Jupiter. The clock will be used to perform atmospheric radio-occultations of Jupiter in order to study the properties of its atmosphere.
Israelis are not usually known for their exceptional punctuality, but Prof. Yohai Kaspi and Dr. Eli Galanti of the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Earth and Planetary Sciences designed a clock so accurate, it will lose less than a second in ten million years. Kaspi is the PI of the atmospheric science experiment of the European Space Agency’s JUICE mission to Jupiter. The clock will be used to perform atmospheric radio-occultations of Jupiter in order to study the properties of its atmosphere.
The construction of the clock – recently completed by the firm Accubeat, located in Jerusalem, and funded by the Israel Space Agency (ISA) in Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology – has been sent to the Netherlands where it will be launched aboard the JUICE spacecraft. The space mission is expected to launch in June 2022 with the aim of studying the properties of the planet and examining conditions for the existence of life on Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
"This is the most accurate clock of its kind in existence today, and has been designed to survive the extremely harsh conditions of space for more than 15 years,” says Kaspi. “There are more exact clocks than the one we will be launching, but these are very large and stationary.”
In the photo: (l-r) Prof. Yohai Kaspi and Dr. Eli Galanti say goodbye to the clock that left Jerusalem for the Netherlands, and from there – to space.