“We can’t wait to see the first view of Jupiter’s poles”.
Advertisement
Currently, Juno is moving away from Jupiter on a large arc. On July 10, six days after surviving its encounter with hyper-speed dust and charged particles hurtling through space at light-speed, JunoCam came back to life.
“Welcome to Jupiter”, declared mission control.
Watch It Again: NASA presents the Juno spacecraft’s view of its destination, taken throughout the month of June.
The snapshot has relieved scientists who anxious that Jupiter’s radioactive environment may have damaged Juno’s equipment, the BBC reported.
Scientists would use Juno’s instruments to sense Jupiter’s deep interior.
Video released of the probe approaching Jupiter revealed a unusual, whistling noise caused by solar winds hitting Jupiter at a million miles per hour, in what is known as a bow shock.
Scientists turned some instruments on July 6 and the JunoCam was powered up Sunday, Science.com reported. “Now we are focusing on preparing for our fourth and final main engine burn, which will put us in our 14-day science orbit on October 19”, informed Rick Nybakken, project manager for Juno from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Higher resolution images will be transmitted on a closer flypast on 27 August.
Orbital capture and insertion occurred last July 4 where Juno successfully entered this highly irradiated environment. The mission team is now turning on all the probe’s instruments to check their status.
Evident in the picture are the gas giant’s coloured atmospheric bands. The Great Red Spot (GRS) is also visible. But it will make a comeback next month.
The spacecraft carries nine instruments to map the planet. They want the spacecraft to transmit data about its structure and chemistry that will reveal how it was created. The photo shows Jupiter’s side where it is already daytime, along with its three largest moons, Europa, Io and Ganymede.
“JunoCam will continue to take images as we go around in this first orbit”, added Candy Hansen, Juno co-investigator from the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. “The fact it’s a handsome image is already a good thing”.
Therefore, the probe is ready to deal with Jupiter now, the researchers believe.
Advertisement
A NASA spacecraft has orbiting Jupiter has begun sending pictures home from the giant planet.
