The space probe will spend 20 months ferreting out the secrets of the solar system’s largest planet
July 4, if all goes well, will be an occasion for celebration at NASA as the Juno spacecraft, after a nearly five-year voyage, will go into orbit around Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. Juno will spend its time in a zone of intense radiation, against which it has been armored, in an effort to ferret out Jupiter’s secrets. By so doing, NASA hopes to gain insights into the origin of the solar system as well as gaining more knowledge of the gas giant, comprised mostly of hydrogen and helium with trace elements of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur.
Previously, the Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter in a wider orbit, studying the planet and its moons. Before that, two Voyager spacecraft flew by the Jovian system on their way to exploring the other gas giants, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
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As of this writing, Juno has entered Jupiter’s magnetosphere which blocks the planet from solar radiation. NASA is due to send a command to the spacecraft to initiate its autopilot. That means, if all goes well, Juno will fire its engines that will place it into orbit around Jupiter on the 4th of July.
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NASA's Juno spacecraft approaches Jupiter for a 4th of July arrival https://t.co/w1RWOujLKj
— MarkWhittington (@MarkWhittington) July 1, 2016
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