How many of you were even aware that, the Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 5, 2011? That itself is news to many. Juno was launched five years ago to study more on Jupiter. Scientists wanted to know more on the evolution and composition of the planet.
If you remember, Galileo was the first spacecraft to orbit the world’s biggest planet. It was crashed deliberately into Jupiter on September 21, 2003 to find a major discovery which is a possible ocean beneath Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Guy Beutelschies, Director of Interplanetary Missions at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said that, “Preliminary looks are that the spacecraft is performing well”.
Steve Levin, Juno Project Scientist, said that “What I’m really looking forward to is getting up close and personal with Jupiter.”
Jupiter is located at 445 million miles (716 million kilometers) from Earth. The probe has traveled a total distance of 1,740 million miles (2,800 million kilometers) to reach Jupiter.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and it is 11 times wider and a massive 300 times more than Earth. The main reason for the immense joy among scientists is that, they feel that this was the first planet to be formed and it holds clues about the formation of the solar system.
Scientists want to know more about the gas giant. What is going on inside the dense clouds of Jupiter? How much water does it have in its atmosphere? The spacecraft will orbit the poles and will have to evade the radiation belts which are extremely hazardous. This is the reason, why the spacecraft comes with a shielded electronics vault.
According to NASA, Juno comes with an onboard color camera called JunoCam that has the capability to capture close-up, color images.
There are also three 1.5-inch Lego figurines and one among them is on the likeness of Galileo Galilei, who was the first scientist to discover the planet’s four largest moons. The other two represent Jupiter and his wife Juno.
Juno is expected to crash into Jupiter by end of February 20, 2018.
This is truly great news for all lovers of the Solar system.
