After a five year journey, NASA's Juno probe has begun its orbit of Jupiter
By Robin-Leigh Chetty 5 July 2016 | Categories: newsIn space, things take time. For example, NASA's New Horizons probe took all of nine years before it came in range to take several pictures of Pluto. More recently though, NASA's Juno probe has completed a five year journey to reach Jupiter, where it will begin taking measurements and images of the largest known planet in our solar system.
Success! Engine burn complete. #Juno is now orbiting #Jupiter, poised to unlock the planet's secrets. https://t.co/YFsOJ9YYb5
— NASA (@NASA) July 5, 2016
The Juno probe achieved the feat of entering Jupiter's orbit last night, after completing a complicated 35 minute-long manoeuvre to match the correct speed that would allow the probe to be sucked in by Jupiter's gravity.
At the moment, Juno is said to be orbiting slowly and will carry out the rest of its mission, according to NASA chief, Charlie Bolden. "With Juno, we will investigate the unknowns of Jupiter's massive radiation belts to delve deep into not only the planet's interior, but into how Jupiter was born and how our entire solar system evolved," stated Bolden.
NASA plans for Juno to orbit Jupiter 37 times to capture all the necessary data it requires. This portion of the mission will take approximately 20 months, thereafter the probe will be crashed into Jupiter's surface to ensure it does not collide into one of the planet's many moons.
You can watch NASA's engineers explain the Juno probe mission in finer details in the video after the break.
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