A solar-powered spacecraft is spinning toward Jupiter for the closest encounter with the biggest planet in our solar system.
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The trip took almost five years and covered 2.8 billion kilometres.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and it is 11 times wider and a massive 300 times more than Earth. On its final orbit, the craft will dive into the largest and oldest planet of the solar system, where it will be crushed and vaporized. After the capturing maneuver, the spacecraft was turned, so that the power delivered by its panels and arranged individual solar cells could be charged by the light of the sun. Galileo, the last mission to the gas giant that ended in 2003, spent most of its mission five times farther away than Juno will get.
Juno will subsequently circle around the planet, moving gradually closer until it sets itself up in October to be in the ideal orbiting position to collect scientific data the following month.
WILL OCKENDEN: During a tense 35-minute period, Juno fired its main engine, allowing the space probe to fall into planetary orbit. Its goal is to peek behind Jupiter’s swirling clouds and explore its gravity and magnetic fields.
“In all of history, we’ve never really been able to see the motion of any heavenly body against another”. The fiery finale expected in 2018 ensures that the spacecraft doesn’t accidentally crash into Jupiter’s moons, particularly the icy moon Europa, a prime target for future missions.
The electronics inside Juno were shielded inside a titanium vault to protect them against this onslaught of radiation. Upon successful placement, Juno will spend the next 20 months doing experiments with its nine instruments and 26 sensors.
The most challenging part of the task of getting Juno safely into Jupiter’s orbit was the engine burn.
“To know we can all go to bed tonight, not worrying about what’s going to happen tomorrow, it’s pretty awesome”, she said at a news conference. The NASA probe that is created to unlock some of the secrets of the solar system had to conduct a tricky operation to slow down enough to be pulled into Jupiter’s orbit.
NASA released a time-lapse video taken by Juno as it approached Jupiter over the past few weeks, but close-up images will not be released before August 27.
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Juno was launched nearly five years ago with a view to study Jupiter’s composition and evolution.
