DAVID ADAMS reports on the latest from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, now orbiting the planet Jupiter…
PICTURE: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
A view of Jupiter, taken from NASA’s Juno spacecraft on 10th July at a distance of about 4.3 million kilometres from the gas giant.
The image, which was taken on the outbound leg of its first 53.5 day orbit of the planet, shows atmospheric conditions on Jupiter, including the famous ‘Great Red Spot’ as well as three of the planet’s four largest moons, Io, Europa and Ganymede (shown as bright dots, from left to right).
The 3.5 metre diameter spacecraft entered the planet’s orbit on 4th July after a 2,800 million miles journey and during its mission to Jupiter will orbit the world 37 times, getting as close as about 4,100 kilometres, before the mission ends in early 2018. The mission will provide views below Jupiter’s dense cloud cover for the first time.
The first high resolution images of the planet are expected on 27th August when the Juno makes its next close pass of the planet. They will be taken by ‘JunoCam’, a color, visible-light camera which has been designed to capture images of Jupiter’s poles and cloud tops.
