Jupiter processed by Jackie Brunk using images taken by the Juno spacecraft on May 12, 2024.
NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft has sent back another batch of images from 560 million miles (900 million kilometers) away.
The bus-sized spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, has captured more stunning images of the giant planet during a close flyby of its polar regions.
This is just in time because Jupiter will be in what astronomers call supreme conjunction on May 18, when it will pass behind the sun as seen from Earth.
Juno orbits Jupiter every 34 days, but on a highly elliptical path, so it only approaches Jupiter for a few hours each month. That short period — so-called period— it happened last Sunday, the 61st day of Juno. During the period, Juno descends close to the tops of Jupiter’s clouds.
View of Jupiter’s northern temperate zone processed by Kevin M. Gill using four images taken by … [+]
Juno orbits Jupiter every 34 days, but on a highly elliptical path, so it only approaches Jupiter for a few hours each month. That short period — so-called period— it happened last Sunday, the 61st day of Juno. During the period, Juno descends close to the tops of Jupiter’s clouds.
The Juno camera is activated during each period. The 2-megapixel JunoCam camera, designed for outreach only and not for science, has been activated in recent months in an early stage to take pictures of some of Jupiter’s moons before it collides with the giant planet.
Jupiter processed by Thomas Thomapoulos using images taken by the Juno spacecraft on May 12, 2024.
Last month, it captured Europa, an ice-covered moon believed to contain an underground ocean. In March, an article published in Astronomy of nature used the Junoian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument to measure the amount of oxygen produced by Europa. It turns out that the tiny moon produces 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours.
Planetary scientists believe that if some of the oxygen produced on Europa enters the moon’s ocean, it could become a possible source of metabolic energy that would allow life forms to exist. Europa is the fourth largest of Jupiter’s 95 known moons.
This storm measures 6,000 km by 4,200 km.
“Our ability to fly close to the Galilean moons during our extended mission has allowed us to begin exploring the breadth of science, including some unique opportunities to contribute to the study of Europa’s habitability,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute. in San Antonio. “And we’re not done yet. More flybys of the Moon and the first exploration of Jupiter’s close ring and polar atmosphere are yet to come.”
Juno also recently discovered the innermost hum of Jupiter, Io. This world is the most volcanic in the solar system, with eruptions orders of magnitude greater than anything similar on Earth.
Jupiter processed by Kevin M. Gill using images taken by the Juno spacecraft on May 12, 2024.
The data from Juno’s very close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024, both within about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of the surface, were the first ever at Io’s northern latitudes. It was made into an animation featuring a mountain and Loki Patera, a lake of cooling lava on Io.
The next two spacecraft scheduled to fly to Jupiter — NASA’s Europa Clipper in April 2030 and ESA’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) in 2031 — will focus on Europa, Callisto and Ganymede.
Jupiter processed by Jackie Brunk using images taken by the Juno spacecraft on May 12, 2024.
The $1.1 billion solar-powered spacecraft was launched on August 5, 2011, and entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016. Juno carries 11 science instruments designed to explore the Jupiter system.
Juno’s 62nd dive will take place on June 14, and its mission will end on September 15, 2025, when Juno performs its “death plunge” into the gas giant during its 76th dive.
I wish you a clear sky and wide eyes.