NASA Juno Spacecraft Sends First Photos of Jupite

• The first ever spacecraft to arrive at Jupiter has sent back images from its pioneering journey.
• A newly released image shows Jupiter as well as three of its four biggest moons.
• Juno took the photo while it was 2.7 million miles away from the solar system’s biggest planet.
• In it, Jupiter’s beautiful atmospheric bands and shrinking Great Red Spot are visible.

About Juno

• The Juno spacecraft – named after the Roman goddess and wife of Jupiter – is packed with nine instruments capable of peering into the planet’s heart
• Juno will fly 2,600 miles above the cloud tops – 3,000 miles closer to the surface than any other mission has ever achieved.
• Juno became the first spacecraft to cruise this far out into the solar system powered solely by the sun, beating Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft. A trio of massive solar wings sticks out from Juno like blades from a windmill, generating 500 watts of power to run its nine instruments.
• Juno, built by Lockheed Martin, is an armored spacecraft – its computer and electronics are locked in a titanium vault to shield them from harmful radiation. Even so, Juno is expected to get blasted with radiation equal to more than 100 million dental X-rays during the mission.
• Juno's principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.
• With its suite of science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras.
• Juno will let us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system.

What Juno will do

• Juno will improve our understanding of the solar system's beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Specifically, Juno will:
• Determine how much water is in Jupiter's atmosphere, which helps determine which planet formation theory is correct (or if new theories are needed)
• Look deep into Jupiter's atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties
• Map Jupiter's magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet's deep structure
• Explore and study Jupiter's magnetosphere near the planet's poles, especially the auroras – Jupiter's northern and southern lights – providing new insights about how the planet's enormous magnetic force field affects its atmosphere.

By: Vishal