NASA’s Juno mission – Page 4

Juno to make closest approach to Jupiter on Saturday

26 August 2016 Astronomy Now

This Saturday NASA’s Juno spacecraft will get closer to the cloud tops of Jupiter than at any other time during its prime mission. At the moment of closest approach, Juno will be about 4,200 kilometres above Jupiter’s swirling clouds and traveling at 208,000 kilometres per hour.

Juno returns its first image of Jupiter since arriving in orbit

13 July 2016 Astronomy Now

NASA has released the first image from the Juno spacecraft since its arrival at Jupiter last week. It confirms that the probe’s camera survived its first pass through Jupiter’s extreme radiation environment.

Juno spacecraft braves the unknown at Jupiter to enter orbit

5 July 2016 Stephen Clark

Setting up post at the king of planets, NASA’s Juno spacecraft fired its main engine for 35 minutes Monday, steering into orbit around Jupiter to peer inside the gas giant and give scientists a better idea of how the solar system took shape 4.6 billion years ago.

Juno Post-Arrival News Conference

5 July 2016 Astronomy Now

Juno programme officials hold a news conference at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory following the successful orbital insertion of the space probe around the gas giant Jupiter.

One last glimpse of Jupiter before Juno’s arrival

4 July 2016 Astronomy Now

This is the final view taken by the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft before Juno’s instruments were powered down in preparation for orbit insertion.

Live coverage: NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter

4 July 2016 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is barreling toward a rendezvous with Jupiter after a 2.8 billion kilometre (1.7-billion-mile), five-year trip from planet Earth. The research probe’s main engine will ignite for 35 minutes to maneuver Juno into orbit, and engineers expect to receive confirmation of burn’s start at 0318 GMT Tuesday.

NASA’s Juno mission is about to peel back the layers on Jupiter

4 July 2016 Stephen Clark

Whether you’re a casual stargazer or armed with a toolkit of observing gadgets, chances are you have caught a glimpse of Jupiter this year beckoning as one of the brightest objects in the night sky. It’s about to get its first visitor in nearly a decade, when NASA’s Juno spacecraft rockets into orbit.

Juno’s British-built engine ready for all-important firing at Jupiter

3 July 2016 Stephen Clark

Ground controllers have pressurised the Juno spacecraft’s propulsion system in preparation for a 5 July rocket firing by the probe’s UK-made rocket engine that will steer the spinning, solar-powered robot into orbit around Jupiter.

Amateur high-resolution observations of Jupiter to support NASA’s Juno mission

12 May 2016 Astronomy Now

Some of the world’s leading amateur and professional astronomers are meeting on 12-13 May to prepare for a campaign of ground-based global observations in support of NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. Delegates from 13 countries in Europe and around the world are meeting at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France.

Solar storms ignite X-ray aurorae on Jupiter

22 March 2016 Astronomy Now

Solar storms are triggering X-ray aurorae on Jupiter that are about eight times brighter than normal over a large area of the planet and hundreds of times more energetic than Earth’s “northern lights,” according to a new study using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory when a giant solar storm arrived at the planet.