The team at NASA is now desperately waiting to catch a glimpse of Jupiter’s pole next. What we do have, though, is the first look at what the gassy giant looks like up close, as seen from an orbiting spacecraft and not a powerful Earth-bound radio telescope. Currently, Juno is moving away from the planet and going toward the more distant parts of a highly elliptical.
Advertisement
The picture was taken on July 10.
“Welcome to Jupiter”, declared mission control. The real experiments will start in October.
Scientists would use Juno’s instruments to sense Jupiter’s deep interior. According scientists, the planet’s inside structure and the chemistry could unveil vital information on how Jupiter world formed around four-and-a-half billion years back.
JunoCam was included on the spacecraft specifically for purposes of public engagement, with NASA not considering it “one of the mission’s science instruments”.
Juno will circle the planet for the next 20 months, completing 37 orbits and swinging as close as 2,700 miles to Jupiter’s surface. In the image along with Jupiter are Io, Europa, and Ganymede. The mission team is now turning on all the probe’s instruments to check their status. The photo also reveals Jupiter’s famous bands on its atmosphere, streaked with orange, red and purple swirling gases.
NASA said in a statement, “The new view was obtained on July 10, 2016, at 10:30 a.m. PDT when the spacecraft was 2.7 million miles from Jupiter on the outbound leg of its initial 53.5-day capture orbit”.
“JunoCam will continue to take images as we go around in this first orbit”, said Juno co-investigator Dr. Candy Hansen, from the Planetary Science Institute. And even though it’s still making its way near the enormous planet, it has already sent a number of exciting images on Earth. According to the NASA website, JunoCam is a visible-light camera that was specially created to capture images below Jupiter’s clouds as well as the planet’s poles.
In the image, Great Red Spot of Jupiter, three Jovian moons and cloud belts are visible.
Therefore, the probe is ready to deal with Jupiter now, the researchers believe.
Advertisement
Better, higher-resolution images will be sent in the weeks and months ahead.
