Let's get ready for Juno's highlight of the year - an extremely close flyby of Jupiter's moon Io!
The NASA Juno spacecraft will make its 57th flyby of Jupiter (Perijove 57) on Sat Dec 30 around 7:39 a.m. ET (12:39 UTC).
A few hours earlier, around 3:36 a.m. ET (08:36 UTC), it will swing by the Galilean moon Io at a distance of 1,500 km. The record will still be held by the Galileo spacecraft which came within 200 km in 2000.
The NASA Juno spacecraft will make its 55th flyby of Jupiter (Perijove 55) today around 7:00 a.m. EDT (11:00 UTC) Oct 15, 2023.
A few hours earlier, around 2:40 a.m. EDT (06:40 UTC), it will observe the Galilean moon Io from a distance of ~11,000 km, the closest it has been to Io so far.
#NASA 's #Juno
Perijove (orbit) 45
Altitude: 412 km
North on the left
Time: 2022-09-29T09:36
Camera: Stellar Reference Unit
File name: SRU_1_2022272T093649_45_V01
This spring, #ESA launched the #Juice Mission to #Jupiter - but why does it need 8 years to get there when the Voyager space probes, many decades ago, needed under two? Well, because we don't want to just zoom past Jupiter but to hand around there for a while, doing cool science.
And once Juice reached Jupiter comes the even more complicated part - getting into the orbit!
The NASA Juno spacecraft will make its 56th flyby of Jupiter (Perijove 56) tomorrow around 12:20 UTC, Nov 22, 2023.
A few hours earlier, around 08:10 UTC, it will cross the orbit of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io. Juno will pass through what is known as the "Io Plasma Torus", the donut shaped region around Io's orbit composed of hot ionized gas (plasma) fed by material from Io's eruptions and shaped by Jupiter's magnetosphere.
Free at last!
The 16m long Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna on the ESA Juice spacecraft, which had been stuck for a month after unfolding 2 of its 6 segments, is finally free 🛰️ 🎉
A mechanical device called a ‘non-explosive actuator’ (NEA), located in the jammed bracket was fired today. The resulting shock moved the stuck pin just enough to allow the antenna to break free and unfold.
NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been probing Jupiter since 2016, captured the moment lightning crackled in the gas giant's stormy atmosphere at its north pole.
I had a great balcony for low effort astrophotography back when I lived outside Geneva. The summer of 2019 was particularly good, and both Jupiter and Saturn were visible every night. I got some great shots of Jupiter with its moons, like this one here.
These are single shots with a 135mm lens and 500ms exposure. I got inspired by a friend that did proper astrophotography with tracking and stacking and all, which sounded like a lot of fun!
NASA captures rare moment Jupiter is struck by GREEN lightning bolt (www.dailymail.co.uk)
NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been probing Jupiter since 2016, captured the moment lightning crackled in the gas giant's stormy atmosphere at its north pole.