This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Adam Sakellarides writes what he calls "nerdy, silly, and sentimental music," and when he heard about the Juno mission to Jupiter, he just had to get involved. He wrote a song—not about the science, but about the tie-in to the original mythology in which Jupiter is the philandering king of the gods and Juno is his angry spouse. He pitched the song to NASA Social, an agency program that brings select members of its social media following to events—Juno's arrival at Jupiter among them.
"As part of my application," Sakellarides says, "I suggested that since I already was a songwriter who wrote about weird things like Star Trek and zombies, and had already written a song about the Curiosity rover, I would write a Juno, song, too." To his delight, they accepted. "It was so exciting to be there at JPL and watch all the scientists and engineers go through the process. Halfway through the 30-something minute burn, a woman from their PR informed me that it was a big hit with the scientists "backstage" (for lack of a better term) watching it. I'm assuming they couldn't be too public about it, as my song is a little more PG-13 than NASA's own video about the myth."
PG-13 or not, the song is hilarious, and so is the performance. One the best lines: "...though lies have been your flair, she knows you’re just hot air. There’s nothing noble ‘bout your gassy derriere"
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See for yourself, and you can follow Sakellarides @AdamSounds
