Juno was able to gather the first ever scientific data from Jupiter during this first mission’s close approach; however, scientists are still collecting and linking the data.
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In this NASA handout, Members of the Juno team celebrate at a press conference after they received confirmation from the Juno spacecraft that it had completed the engine burn and successfully entered into orbit around Jupiter, July 4, 2016 in Pasadena, CA.
The solar-powered, unmanned probe zoomed more than 4,100 km (2,600 mi) above the clouds at 209,200 kph (130,000 mph).
“It will take days for all the science data collected during the flyby to be downlinked and even more to begin to comprehend what Juno and Jupiter are trying to tell us”, said Scott Bolton, a principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
This view of Jupiter was taken on August 27, when Juno was 703,000 km (437,000 miles) away. The historic mission is scheduled to end in February 2018.
Scientists hope the mission will reveal how Jupiter’s huge, formidable magnetic field is produced and whether the planet has a solid core.
Writing in a blog post for the Planetary Society (which obsesses over the details of planetary missions), Emily Lakdawalla remarked on the “unusual view” provided by the image, which is top-down and nearly reveals Jupiter’s pimply looking northern pole.
Flying this close to the planet’s radiation belts risks damaging Juno’s electronics.
“Early post-flyby telemetry indicates that everything worked as planned and Juno is firing on all cylinders”, said Juno project manager Dr. Rick Nybakken, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
High-resolution images of Jupiter’s atmosphere and of its polar regions taken during the August 27 flyby will be released late next week.
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Laurel Kornfeld is a freelance writer and amateur astronomer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science.
