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Five years and 2.8bn kilometres later, Juno arrives at Jupiter

After a five year journey spanning 2.8billion kilometres, Nasa’s probe Juno, has successfully entered the orbit of Jupiter.

The probe entered the gas giant’s orbit at 03:18 GMT (05:18 CAT) after a 35 minute burn sequence slowed the spacecraft down to 209 214km/h, enough to be caught by the huge planet’s gravitational pull.

Upon its arrival, mission control commentator, Jennifer Delavan said, “Juno, welcome to Jupiter”.

Principle investigator of the Juno mission, Scott Bolton, thanked the team who had been observing the craft tensely.

“You’re the best team ever,” Bolton said. “We just did the hardest thing Nasa has ever done.”

Bolton wasn’t exaggerating; according to The Guardian, had the 35 minute burn failed or ended too soon, Juno’s orbit may have been wrong or, much worse, Juno would be on course to crash into the sun.

What are you looking at Juno?

The probe will orbit Jupiter 37 times, each lap of the planet is expected to last two weeks. In this time Juno will study the surface of the planet.

Nasa hopes to discover whether the gas giant has a solid core, whether the planet has water and what creates the lights visible at the planet’s north and south poles.

The underlying hope is that by studying the planet we will have a better understanding of how solar systems and planets are born.

Juno will use 29 sensors to observe Jupiter. The most sensitive of these are contained within a titanium enclosure to protect them from the radiation emitted by the planet. Powering these sensors along are three solar panels weighing 340kg. This makes Jupiter the furthest solar-powered spacecraft from Earth.

As you may know, the probe contains three aluminium LEGO mini-figures, representing the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and the astronomer, Galileo.

The mission will be completed by February 2018 at which point the probe will descend into the depths of the planet it has taken so long to reach.

[Source – The Guardian] [Image – CC BY 2.0 Robert Couse-Baker]

 

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