A 1.7 billion-mile journey to peel back Jupiter's veil
In short: Jupiter is so massive that every object in our solar system, aside from the Sun, could fit inside it. To understand our own origins, NASA sent Juno on a five-year odyssey to pierce the gas giant's clouds and map its hidden interior, magnetic fields, and violent atmosphere.
Launched on August 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Juno traveled 1.7 billion miles (2.8 billion kilometers) to reach Jupiter in July 2016. To achieve this distance without carrying an impossible amount of fuel, engineers used a 'gravity assist'—a technique where the spacecraft swung past Earth to gain a boost in speed. This maneuver allowed the Atlas V 551 rocket to propel the craft efficiently toward its destination, a method used by many previous space missions to reach the outer solar system.
Juno is unique among its predecessors because it relies on solar power rather than nuclear power. To function within the outer solar system's faint illumination, this craft features a set of three massive solar arrays never before used on a spacecraft traveling between planets. Once it reached Jupiter, it entered an elliptical polar orbit, performing 33 orbits to study the planet's poles. Its suite of nine instruments, including the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) and the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), allows scientists to measure water and ammonia levels in deep atmospheric layers and capture images of auroras.
The mission has already upended previous views of the gas giant. It discovered previously unseen networks of vast storms swirling around the poles and confirmed that Jupiter's winds extend hundreds of miles toward its interior. It also observed active volcanoes and lakes of lava on the moon Io. These findings are critical because scientists believe Jupiter holds the key to understanding the evolution and origins of our entire solar system. The spacecraft is scheduled to continue these observations through September 2025.
The mission's name even carries a mythological layer: in Roman mythology, Jupiter was the god of storms who hid behind a veil of clouds, while his wife, Juno, was the queen who broke through the haze to see his true nature. In a scientific sense, Juno is doing exactly that, stripping away the atmospheric layers of the 'King of Planets' to reveal the secrets of its gravity, magnetic fields, and internal composition.
Opens the Intellect+ feed with this card first. Swipe up for the next one.
Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Juno Mission Launches to Jupiter
- Also: Juno - NASA Science
- Also: 10 Years Ago: Juno Launched to Observe Jupiter - NASA
- Also: Launch - Mission Juno
To cite this card, link to https://intellectplus.co.uk/app/space-juno-mission-launches-to-jupiter.
How we source, check and correct cards: Editorial standards.
General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.
Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?
Related
More in Astronomy · More in Space · Latest · A–Z · All topics
