Starship Asterisk*

NASA's Juno spacecraft will be forging ahead into a treacherous environment at Jupiter with more radiation than any other place NASA has ever sent a spacecraft, except the sun. In a specially filtered cleanroom in Denver, where Juno is being assembled, engineers recently added a unique protective shield around its sensitive electronics. New pictures of the assembly were released today.
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An invisible force field filled with high-energy particles coming off from Jupiter and its moons surrounds the largest planet in our solar system. This magnetic force field, similar to a less powerful one around Earth, shields Jupiter from charged particles flying off the sun. The electrons, protons and ions around Jupiter are energized by the planet's super-fast rotation, sped up to nearly the speed of light.

Jupiter's radiation belts are shaped like a huge doughnut around the planet's equatorial region and extend out past the moon Europa, about 650,000 kilometers (400,000 miles) out from the top of Jupiter's clouds. ...

"For the 15 months Juno orbits Jupiter, the spacecraft will have to withstand the equivalent of more than 100 million dental X-rays," said Bill McAlpine, Juno's radiation control manager, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "In the same way human beings need to protect their organs during an X-ray exam, we have to protect Juno's brain and heart."

The strategy? Give Juno a kind of six-sided lead apron on steroids.

Click to view full size image

Rotating Juno for Integrating Instruments

Once the radiation vault was installed on top of the propulsion module, NASA's Juno spacecraft was lifted onto a large rotation fixture to continue with its assembly process. The fixture allows the spacecraft to be turned for convenient access for integrating and testing instruments.

Juno's specially designed radiation vault protects the spacecraft's electronic brain and heart from Jupiter's harsh radiation environment. The vault will dramatically slow down the aging effect radiation has on the electronics for the duration of the mission. The image was taken on June 14, 2010, as Juno was being assembled in a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems (LMSS), Denver.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is building the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency, Rome, is contributing an infrared spectrometer instrument and a portion of the radio science experiment.

For more information about Juno visit http://www.nasa.gov/juno.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LMSS

Key things to know about Juno:

• Spacecraft launches in August 2011
• Five-year cruise to Jupiter, arriving July 2016
• One year at Jupiter will complete the mission (orbiting the planet 32 times)

Juno will improve our understanding of our solar system’s beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Specifically, Juno will:

• Determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which helps determine which planet formation theory is correct (or if new theories are needed)
• Look deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties
• Map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structure
• Explore and study Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles, especially the auroras – Jupiter’s northern and southern lights – providing new insights about how the planet’s enormous magnetic force field affects its atmosphere.

• Spacecraft scheduled to launch between Aug. 5 and Aug. 26, 2011
• Five-year cruise to Jupiter, arriving July 2016
• Spacecraft will orbit Jupiter for about one year (33 orbits)
• Mission ends with de-orbit into Jupiter

• Determine how much water is in Jupiter’s atmosphere, which helps determine which planet formation theory is correct (or if new theories are needed)
• Look deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere to measure composition, temperature, cloud motions and other properties
• Map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity fields, revealing the planet’s deep structure
• Explore and study Jupiter’s magnetosphere near the planet’s poles, especially the auroras – Jupiter’s northern and southern lights – providing new insights about how the planet’s enormous magnetic force field affects its atmosphere.

The Giant Planet Story is the Story of the Solar System

Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

With its suite of science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras.

Juno will let us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in putting together the rest of the solar system.

Jupiter’s Origins and Interior

Theories about solar system formation all begin with the collapse of a giant cloud of gas and dust, or nebula, most of which formed the infant sun. Like the sun, Jupiter is mostly hydrogen and helium, so it must have formed early, capturing most of the material left after our star came to be. How this happened, however, is unclear. Did a massive planetary core form first and gravitationally capture all that gas, or did an unstable region collapse inside the nebula, triggering the planet’s formation? Differences between these scenarios are profound.

Even more importantly, the composition and role of icy planetesimals, or small proto-planets, in planetary formation hangs in the balance – and with them, the origin of Earth and other terrestrial planets. Icy planetesimals likely were the carriers of materials like water and carbon compounds that are the fundamental building blocks of life.

Unlike Earth, Jupiter's giant mass allowed it to hold onto its original composition, providing us with a way of tracing our solar system's history. Juno will measure the amount of water and ammonia in Jupiter’s atmosphere and determine if the planet actually has a solid core, directly resolving the origin of this giant planet and thereby the solar system. By mapping Jupiter’s gravitational and magnetic fields, Juno will reveal the planet’s interior structure and measure the mass of the core.

Atmosphere

How deep Jupiter's colorful zones, belts, and other features penetrate is one of the most outstanding fundamental questions about the giant planet. Juno will determine the global structure and motions of the planet’s atmosphere below the cloud tops for the first time, mapping variations in the atmosphere’s composition, temperature, clouds and patterns of movement down to unprecedented depths.

Magnetosphere

[i]Juno's interplanetary trajectory. (Credit: NASA/JPL)[/i]

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Deep in Jupiter's atmosphere, under great pressure, hydrogen gas is squeezed into a fluid known as metallic hydrogen. At these great depths, the hydrogen acts like an electrically conducting metal which is believed to be the source of the planet's intense magnetic field. This powerful magnetic environment creates the brightest auroras in our solar system, as charged particles precipitate down into the planet’s atmosphere. Juno will directly sample the charged particles and magnetic fields near Jupiter’s poles for the first time, while simultaneously observing the auroras in ultraviolet light produced by the extraordinary amounts of energy crashing into the polar regions. These investigations will greatly improve our understanding of this remarkable phenomenon, and also of similar magnetic objects, like young stars with their own planetary systems.

Juno’s Mythical Connection

In Greek and Roman mythology, Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief. It was Jupiter's wife, the goddess Juno, who was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter’s true nature. The Juno spacecraft will also look beneath the clouds to see what the planet is up to, not seeking signs of misbehavior, but helping us to understand the planet’s structure and history.

Mission Timeline

• Launch - August 2011
• Earth flyby gravity assist - October 2013
• Jupiter arrival - July 2016
• End of mission (deorbit) - October 2017

The Juno mission is the second spacecraft designed under NASA's New Frontiers Program. The first was the Pluto New Horizons mission, launched in January 2006 and scheduled to reach Pluto's moon Charon in 2015. The program provides opportunities to carry out several medium-class missions identified as top priority objectives in the Decadal Solar System Exploration Survey, conducted by the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council in Washington.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission. The Principal Investigator is Dr. Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Lockheed Martin of Denver built the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency contributed an infrared spectrometer instrument and a portion of the radio science experiment.

Juno Flight System & Payload

The Juno spacecraft is scheduled to launch aboard an Atlas V-551 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in Aug. 2011, reaching Jupiter in July 2016. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter 32 times, skimming to within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops, for approximately one year.

Juno uses a spinning solar-powered spacecraft in a highly elliptical polar orbit that avoids most of Jupiter's high radiation regions. The designs of the individual instruments are straightforward and the mission does not require the development of any new technologies.

Juno's scientific payload includes:

[i]Juno spacecraft and its science instruments. (Credit: NASA/JPL)[/i]

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• Microwave radiometer (MWR)
  The primary goal of the radiometer is to probe the deep atmosphere of Jupiter at radio wavelengths ranging from 1.3 cm to 50 cm using six separate radiometers to measure the planet's thermal emissions.
  • Principal investigator: Mike Janssen
  • Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM)
  The primary goal of JIRAM is to probe the upper layers of Jupiter's atmosphere down to pressures of 5-7 bars at infrared wavelengths in the 2-5 μm interval using an imager and a spectrometer.
  • Italian National Institute for Astrophysics
• Fluxgate Magnetometer (FGM)
  The magnetic field investigation has three goals: mapping of the magnetic field, determining the dynamics of Jupiter's interior, and determination of the three-dimensional structure of the polar magnetosphere.
  • Principal investigator: Jack Connerney
  • NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
• Advanced Stellar Compass (ASC)
  Will provide accurate pointing information of the Juno spacecraft for precise mapping.
  • Principal investigator: Jack Connerney
  • NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
• Jovian Auroral Distribution Experiment (JADE)
  JADE will resolve the plasma structure of the Jovian aurora by measuring the angular, energy and compositional distributions of particles in the polar magnetosphere of Jupiter.
  • Principal investigator: David McComas
  • Southwest Research Institute
• Jovian Energetic Particle Detector Instrument (JEDI)
  JEDI will measure the energy and angular distribution of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, sulfur and other ions in the polar magnetosphere of Jupiter.
  • Principal investigator: Barry Mauk
  • Applied Physics Laboratory
• Radio and Plasma Wave Sensor (WAVES)
  This instrument will identify the regions of auroral currents that define Jovian radio emissions and acceleration of the auroral particles by measuring the radio and plasma spectra in the auroral region.
  • Principal investigator: William Kurth
  • University of Iowa
• Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVS)
  UVS will record the wavelength, position and arrival time of detected ultraviolet photons during the time when the spectrograph slit views Jupiter during each turn of the spacecraft. Using a 1024 x 256 micro channel plate (MCP) detector, it will provide spectral images of the UV auroral emissions in the polar magnetosphere.
  • Principal investigator: G. Randall Gladstone
  • Southwest Research Institute
• JunoCam (JCM)
  A visible light camera/telescope, included in the payload to facilitate education and public outreach. It will operate for only seven orbits around Jupiter because of the planet's damaging radiation and magnetic field.
  • Principal investigator: Michael C. Malin
  • Malin Space Science Systems

Rotating Spacecraft

For Juno, like NASA’s earlier Pioneer spacecraft, spinning makes the spacecraft's pointing extremely stable and easy to control. Just after launch, and before its solar arrays are deployed, Juno will be spun-up by rocket motors on its still attached second-stage rocket booster. While in orbit at Jupiter, the spinning spacecraft sweeps the fields of view of its instruments through space once for each rotation. At three rotations per minute, the instruments' fields of view sweep across Jupiter about 400 times in the two hours it takes to fly from pole to pole.

Solar Power

Jupiter’s orbit is five times farther from the Sun than Earth’s, so the giant planet receives 25 times less sunlight than Earth. Juno will be the first solar-powered spacecraft designed by NASA to operate at such a great distance from the sun, thus the surface area of solar panels required to generate adequate power is quite large. Three solar panels extend outward from Juno’s hexagonal body, giving the overall spacecraft a span of about 66 feet (20 meters). The solar panels will remain in sunlight continuously from launch through end of mission, except for a few minutes during the Earth flyby. Before launch, the solar panels will be folded into four-hinged segments so that the spacecraft can fit into the launch vehicle.

Juno benefits from advances in solar cell design with modern cells that are 50 percent more efficient and radiation tolerant than silicon cells available for space missions 20 years ago. The mission’s power needs are modest, with science instruments requiring full power for only about six hours out of each 11-day orbit (during the period near closest approach to the planet). With a mission design that avoids any eclipses by Jupiter, minimizes damaging radiation exposure and allows all science measurements to be taken with the solar panels facing the sun, solar power is a perfect fit for Juno.

Electronics Vault

Juno will avoid Jupiter's highest radiation regions by approaching over the north, dropping to an altitude below the planet's radiation belts – which are analogous to Earth’s Van Allen belts, but far more deadly – and then exiting over the south. To protect sensitive spacecraft electronics, Juno will carry the first radiation shielded electronics vault, a critical feature for enabling sustained exploration in such a heavy radiation environment. This feature of the mission is relevant to NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, which addresses the need for protection against harsh radiation in space environments beyond the safety of low-Earth orbit.

[i]Three LEGO figurines representing the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and Galileo Galilei are shown here aboard the Juno spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC)[/i]

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NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft will carry the 1.5-inch likeness of Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno to Jupiter when the spacecraft launches this Friday, Aug. 5. The inclusion of the three mini-statues, or figurines, is part of a joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the partnership between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

In Greek and Roman mythology, Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief. From Mount Olympus, Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature. Juno holds a magnifying glass to signify her search for the truth, while her husband holds a lightning bolt. The third LEGO crew member is Galileo Galilei, who made several important discoveries about Jupiter, including the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honor). Of course, the miniature Galileo has his telescope with him on the journey.

[i]A plaque dedicated to the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei can be seen here on NASA's Juno spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC)[/i]

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A plaque dedicated to the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei will be carried to Jupiter aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft. The launch period for Juno opens Aug. 5, 2011, and extends through Aug. 26. For an Aug. 5 liftoff, the launch window opens at 8:34 a.m. PDT (11:34 a.m. EDT) and remains open through 9:43 a.m. PDT (12:43 p.m. EDT).

Among his many achievements, Galileo Galilei discovered that moons orbited Jupiter in 1610. These satellites -- Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto -- are also known as the Galilean moons.

The plaque, which was provided by the Italian Space Agency, measures 2.8 by 2 inches (71 by 51 millimeters), is made of flight-grade aluminum and weighs six grams (0.2 ounces). It was bonded to Juno's propulsion bay with a spacecraft-grade epoxy. The graphic on the plaque depicts a self-portrait of Galileo. It also includes -- in Galileo's own hand -- a passage he made in 1610 of observations of Jupiter, archived in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence.

Galileo's text included on the plaque reads as follows: “On the 11th it was in this formation -- and the star closest to Jupiter was half the size than the other and very close to the other so that during the previous nights all of the three observed stars looked of the same dimension and among them equally afar; so that it is evident that around Jupiter there are three moving stars invisible till this time to everyone.”

• • Memorable quotes for Juno (2007)
  
  Juno MacGuff: Hey, Dad.
  
  Mac MacGuff: Hey, big puffy version of June bug. Where you been?
  
  Juno MacGuff: Oh, just out dealing with things way beyond my maturity level.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_%28mythology%29 wrote:
Juno and Genius: <<The view that Juno was the feminine counterpart to Genius, i.e. that as men possess a tutelary entity or double named genius, so women have their own one named juno, has been maintained by many scholars. In the past it has also been argued that goddess Juno herself would be the issue of a process of abstraction from the individual junos of every woman. The genius was believed to be associated with the forehead of each man, while goddess Juno, not the juno of every woman, was supposed to have under her jurisdiction the eyebrows of women or to be the tutelary goddess of the eyebrows of everybody, irrespective of one's sex.>>

Juno Caprotina: <<The alliance of the three aspects of Juno finds a strictly related parallel to the Lupercalia in the festival of the Nonae Caprotinae. On that day the Roman free and slave women pic-a-niced and had fun together near the site of the wildfig (caprificus): the custom implied runs, mock battles with fists and stones, obscene language and finally the sacrifice of a male goat to Juno Caprotina under a wildfig tree. The historical episode narrated by ancient sources concerns the siege of Rome by the Latin peoples that ensued the Gallic sack. The dictator of the Latins Livius Postumius from Fidenae would have requested the Roman senate that the matronae and daughters of the most prominent families be surrendered to the Latins as hostages. While the senate was debating the issue a slave girl, whose Greek name was Philotis and Latin Tutela or Tutula proposed that she together with other slave girls would render herself up to the enemy camp pretending to be the wives and daughters of the Roman families. Upon agreement of the senate, the women dressed up elegantly and wearing golden jewellery reached the Latin camp. There they seduced the Latins into fooling and drinking: after they had fallen asleep they stole their swords. Then Tutela gave the convened signal to the Romans brandishing an ignited branch after climbing on the wild fig and hidding the fire with her mantle. The Romans then irrupted into the Latin camp killing the enemies in their sleep. The women were rewarded with freedom and a dowry at public expenses.>>

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How NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter Works (Infographic)

[i]Still image from a Juno mission animation shows how the spinning spacecraft might look during deployment of its giant solar arrays. Solar array deployment takes place just a few minutes after Juno separates from its launch vehicle upper stage booster. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)[/i]

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NASA's Juno spacecraft blasted off Friday (Aug. 5), kicking off a five-year journey to faraway Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.

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  [i]Juno spacecraft launches aboard the Atlas 5 launch vehicle at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, 12:25 EST, August 5, 2011. (Credit: NASA TV)[/i]

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Juno launched atop an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket Friday at 12:25 p.m. EDT (1625 GMT), streaking into the skies above Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After a long and circuitous journey, the probe should settle into orbit around Jupiter in July 2016.

The rocket lifted off an hour later than planned, following a suspenseful countdown that encountered a few snags. The vehicle was initially slated to launch at 11:24 a.m. EDT (1534 GMT), but a helium leak in a ground system for the probe's Atlas 5 rocket caused the first delay, then officials needed to confirm that wayward boat was clear of the rocket's offshore launch range, forcing NASA to stall further. [Gallery: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter]

Both issues were resolved in time to launch the Atlas 5 before its one-hour window closed. [Video: Juno Blast-Off: Jupiter Mission Begins]

Next stop: Jupiter

Once at Jupiter, Juno will study the huge planet from orbit for one Earth year, helping scientists better understand how and when Jupiter came to be. Such information could shed light on planet formation processes and the evolution of our solar system, researchers said.

"We're getting the ingredients of Jupiter," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwestern Research Institute in San Antonio, told reporters Wednesday (Aug. 3). "We're going to understand what the structure is like inside — how is it built — and that'll kind of give us guidance as to what happened in that early time that eventually led to us." [Next Stop, Jupiter! Launch Photos of NASA's Juno Mission]

Studying mysterious Jupiter

Gigantic Jupiter was greedy from the very beginning, gobbling up most of the gas and dust left over in the early solar system after the sun formed.

As a result, Jupiter became the king of the planets; it harbors twice as much mass as everything else in the solar system put together (excluding the sun). However, the gas giant rules in obscurity, for scientists still don't know much about Jupiter.

For example, they're not sure if the huge planet has a solid core of heavy elements, or if it's made entirely of gas. And it's unclear exactly how — and where — Jupiter formed.

The $1.1 billion Juno mission was designed to investigate these and other mysteries. After settling into a highly elliptical polar orbit around the planet five years from now, the spacecraft will study Jupiter's atmosphere and composition, as well as map its magnetic and gravitational fields.

Juno will measure the water content of Jupiter's thick, swirling atmosphere to gain insights about the planet's birth. A relatively wet Jupiter suggests it may have formed far away from the sun, then migrated in to its present position later, researchers have said.

"We are going to be using a microwave detector and fly just over the clouds of Jupiter, looking down at different cloud depths to measure the amounts of water below," said Juno co-investigator Fran Bagenal, of the University of Colorado, in a statement. "It’s a bit like doing a CT scan of Jupiter’s dense clouds."

Juno will also gauge Jupiter's gravitational and magnetic fields, in an effort to determine if the planet does indeed have a solid core — and, if so, how big it is.

Because the probe is flying over Jupiter's poles, it will get great looks at the giant planet's auroras — the phenomena we refer to on Earth as the Northern and Southern Lights. [Video: Key to Solar System's to be Probed at Jupiter]

And Juno will also take a bunch of photos in visible, ultraviolet and infrared light. In short, Jupiter has five years to prepare for its close-up.

A solar-powered spacecraft

Juno, which weighs about 8,000 pounds (3,267 kilograms) will make its long journey powered by the sun — the first time a solar-powered craft has ever traveled as far out as Jupiter.

Jupiter orbits nearly 400 million miles (644 million kilometers) farther from the sun than Earth does. Out there, sunlight is 25 times less intense than it is here on our home planet.

So Juno needs some pretty serious light-collecting area to generate enough juice. The spacecraft boasts three different solar arrays, each as big as a tractor-trailer. The arrays' 18,698 solar cells will generate about 400 watts of power out at Jupiter — the equivalent of four 100-watt light bulbs.

When Juno finally gets to Jupiter in July 2016, it will settle into a highly elliptical polar orbit, coming as close as 3,107 miles (5,000 kilometers) from the gas giant's cloud-tops at its closest pass.

This proximity will afford great looks at the giant planet, but it's dangerous for Juno, too. Jupiter possesses the strongest radiation environment of any solar system body beyond the sun. So mission planners have encased Juno's sensitive instruments and electronics inside a titanium "vault" for protection.

Juno will make 33 orbits of Jupiter over its year-long operational life, then be crashed intentionally into the giant planet. Scientists want to make sure that Juno doesn't slam into — and potentially contaminate — any of Jupiter's moons, some of which may be capable of supporting life.

NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:25 a.m. PDT (12:25 p.m. EDT) Friday to begin a five-year journey to Jupiter.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Juno's detailed study of the largest planet in our solar system will help reveal Jupiter's origin and evolution. As the archetype of giant gas planets, Jupiter can help scientists understand the origin of our solar system and learn more about planetary systems around other stars.

"Today, with the launch of the Juno spacecraft, NASA began a journey to yet another new frontier," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "The future of exploration includes cutting-edge science like this to help us better understand our solar system and an ever-increasing array of challenging destinations."

After Juno's launch aboard an Atlas V rocket, mission controllers now await telemetry from the spacecraft indicating it has achieved its proper orientation, and that its massive solar arrays, the biggest on any NASA deep-space probe, have deployed and are generating power.

"We are on our way, and early indications show we are on our planned trajectory," said Jan Chodas, Juno project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We will know more about Juno's status in a couple hours after its radios are energized and the signal is acquired by the Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas at Canberra."

Juno will cover the distance from Earth to the moon (about 250,000 miles or 402,336 kilometers) in less than one day's time. It will take another five years and 1,740 million miles (2,800 million kilometers) to complete the journey to Jupiter. The spacecraft will orbit the planet's poles 33 times and use its collection of eight science instruments to probe beneath the gas giant's obscuring cloud cover to learn more about its origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere, and look for a potential solid planetary core.

With four large moons and many smaller moons, Jupiter forms its own miniature solar system. Its composition resembles that of a star, and if it had been about 80 times more massive, the planet could have become a star instead.

"Jupiter is the Rosetta Stone of our solar system," said Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "It is by far the oldest planet, contains more material than all the other planets, asteroids and comets combined, and carries deep inside it the story of not only the solar system but of us. Juno is going there as our emissary -- to interpret what Jupiter has to say."

Juno's name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature.

The Juno spacecraft launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011. Juno will make a five-year, 400-million-mile voyage to Jupiter, orbit the planet, investigate its origins and evolution with eight instruments to probe its internal structure and gravity field, measure water and ammonia in its atmosphere, map its powerful magnetic field and observe its intense auroras.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

[i]This image of Earth (on the left) and the moon (on the right) was taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft on Aug. 26, 2011, when the spacecraft was about 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) away. It was taken by the spacecraft's onboard camera, JunoCam. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)[/i]

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On its way to the biggest planet in the solar system -- Jupiter, NASA's Juno spacecraft took time to capture its home planet and its natural satellite -- the moon.

"This is a remarkable sight people get to see all too rarely," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "This view of our planet shows how Earth looks from the outside, illustrating a special perspective of our role and place in the universe. We see a humbling yet beautiful view of ourselves."

The image was taken by the spacecraft's camera, JunoCam, on Aug. 26 when the spacecraft was about 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) away. The image was taken as part of the mission team's checkout of the Juno spacecraft. The team is conducting its initial detailed checks on the spacecraft's instruments and subsystems after its launch on Aug. 5.

Juno covered the distance from Earth to the moon (about 250,000 miles or 402,000 kilometers) in less than one day's time. It will take the spacecraft another five years and 1,740 million miles (2,800 million kilometers) to complete the journey to Jupiter. The spacecraft will orbit the planet's poles 33 times and use its eight science instruments to probe beneath the gas giant's obscuring cloud cover to learn more about its origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere, and look for a potential solid planetary core.

The solar-powered Juno spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:25 a.m. PDT (12:25 p.m. EDT) on Aug. 5 to begin its five-year journey to Jupiter.

Ann wrote:I don't think I'm going to be much appreciated for saying this, but... it's a black and white picture, right?

One of the really moving things about the "pale blue dot" that Carl Sagan talked about is that the picture in question really showed the Earth to be a faintly blue dot.

Since I'm old enough to remember the first Moon landing, and to remember bits and pieces of what some of the various Moon landing astronauts said about what made the greatest impression on them, I remember that one of the astronauts (though I have no idea which of them) said that what made the greatest impression on him was "the colors of the Earth, and its smallness".

Juno's picture shows the smallness of the Earth, but not its colors. Of course it shows the binary nature of the Earth-Moon system, too.

Ann

owlice wrote:Ann, yes, it's a black and white picture. I think it's terribly sad that you cannot appreciate it for what it is, and what it shows, that you are not moved by it just because Earth's tiny dot isn't blue.

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Click to play embedded YouTube video.

The key to a sane life is perspective. Or at least that’s how I feel when I see an image like the famous Apollo 8 shot of a gorgeous blue Earth rising over the barren, cratered Moon. Great images of the kind the space program deals up can change how we see everything — the Apollo 8 image is widely thought to have energized environmental and ecological thinking in its day. We also have a few striking images showing both the Earth and the Moon together. The one I always fall back on is the one below, a barren Moon with a living Earth swimming in black space. It was a departing gift from the Galileo spacecraft as it left on its long journey to Jupiter in 1989.

• Image: On its way to Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft looked back and captured this remarkable view of Earth and the moon. The image was taken from a distance of about 3.9 million miles. The brightly colored Earth contrasts strongly with the moon, which reflects only about a third as much sunlight as Earth. Contrast and color have been computer-enhanced for both objects to improve visibility. Antarctica is just visible through clouds (bottom). Credit: NASA.

Now we have an update of the scene, taken by Juno as it makes its own way to Jupiter. Juno managed the distance from the Earth to the Moon (just over 400,000 kilometers) in less than a day, but it will be another five years and 2,800 million kilometers before journey’s end, where the spacecraft will orbit the giant planet’s poles to study its magnetosphere and probe beneath the clouds. Right now the Juno team is conducting initial checks on spacecraft instruments following the August 5 launch. What we see below was the view from 9.66 million kilometers out.

• Image: This image of Earth (on the left) and the moon (on the right) was taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Aug. 26, 2011, when the spacecraft was about 6 million miles (9.66 million kilometers) away. It was taken by the spacecraft’s onboard camera, JunoCam. The solar-powered Juno spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Aug. 5 to begin a five-year journey to Jupiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

We lack the detail of the Galileo image, of course, but the thrill is still there when you consider what we’re looking at. The Juno team seems no more immune to this than the rest of us:

• “This is a remarkable sight people get to see all too rarely,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “This view of our planet shows how Earth looks from the outside, illustrating a special perspective of our role and place in the universe. We see a humbling yet beautiful view of ourselves.”

Indeed. And while we’re on the subject, let’s not forget another unforgettable view, this one of the Earth and the Moon as seen from the EPOXI spacecraft. Courtesy Don Lindler/NASA/EPOXI team.

EPOXI (the combined names for the two extended missions of the Deep Impact spacecraft) viewed the Earth/Moon system from almost 50 million kilometers out, the idea being to study how a life-bearing planet would appear to our instruments. Of course, to view a planet at this level of detail from another star system would require technology far beyond what we currently possess. But we’re looking seriously at near-future missions that might be able to pick out an Earth analogue as a single point of light that would change with time as the world rotated. All of this is part of the quest to identify habitable worlds. One day it will happen, but until then, watching that Moon move in front of the Earth is yet another perspective changer, one that leaves this writer a bit amazed no matter how many times he sees it.

bystander wrote:

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  [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100901.html][size=120][b]APOD: Earth and Moon from MESSENGER (2010 Sep 01)[/b][/size][/url] [size=120][b][i]Credit: NASA/JHU APL/CIW[/i][/b][/size]

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[i]NASA's Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft tested its JunoCam instrument on one of the icons of the night sky - the Big Dipper. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS)[/i]

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In England it is known as the "Plough," in Germany the "Great Cart," and in Malaysia the "Seven Ploughs." Since humanity first turned its eyes skyward, the seven northern hemisphere stars that compose the "Big Dipper" have been a welcome and familiar introduction to the heavens.

"I can recall as a kid making an imaginary line from the two stars that make up the right side of the Big Dipper's bowl and extending it upward to find the North Star," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "Now, the Big Dipper is helping me make sure the camera aboard Juno is ready to do its job."

Launched on Aug. 5, 2011, the solar-powered Juno spacecraft is 279 days and 380 million miles (612 million kilometers) into its five-year, 1,905-million-mile (3,065-million-kilometer) journey to Jupiter. Once there, the spacecraft will orbit the planet's poles 33 times and use its nine instruments to image and probe beneath the gas giant's obscuring cloud cover to learn more about Jupiter's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere, and look for a potential solid planetary core.

One of those instruments, JunoCam, is tasked with taking closeups of the gas giant's atmosphere. But, with four-and-a-half years to go before photons of light from Jupiter first fill its CCD (charge-coupled device), and a desire to certify the camera in flight, Juno's mission planners took a page from their childhood and on March 21, aimed their camera at a familiar celestial landmark.

"I don't know if it's the first space-based image of the Big Dipper but, as it was taken when we were well beyond Mars orbit, it's probably from the farthest out," said Bolton. "But much more important than that is the simple fact that JunoCam, like the rest of this mission, works as advertised and is ready for its day in the sun - around Jupiter."

The JunoCam test image of the Big Dipper is online at: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15653 .

Juno's name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature.

More information about Juno is online at http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu/.

[url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/multimedia/juno20120830i.html][b][i]Juno Deep Space Maneuver[/i][/b][/url] - [i]Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Eyes[/i]

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Earlier today, navigators and mission controllers for NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter watched their computer screens as their spacecraft successfully performed its first deep-space maneuver. This first firing of Juno's main engine is one of two planned to refine the spacecraft's trajectory, setting the stage for a gravity assist from a flyby of Earth on Oct 9, 2013. Juno will arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016.

The deep-space maneuver began at 6:57 p.m. EDT (3:57 p.m. PDT) today, when the Leros-1b main engine was fired for 29 minutes 39 seconds. Based on telemetry, the Juno project team believes the burn was accurate, changing the spacecraft's velocity by about 770 mph (344 meters a second) while consuming about 829 pounds (376 kilograms) of fuel.

"This first and successful main engine burn is the payoff for a lot of hard work and planning by the operations team," said Juno Project Manager Rick Nybakken of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We started detailed preparations for this maneuver earlier this year, and over the last five months we've been characterizing and configuring the spacecraft, primarily in the propulsion and thermal systems. Over the last two weeks, we have carried out planned events almost every day, including heating tanks, configuring subsystems, uplinking new sequences, turning off the instruments and increasing the spacecraft's spin rate. There is a lot that goes into a main engine burn."

The burn occurred when Juno was more than 300 million miles (483 million kilometers) away from Earth.

A second deep space maneuver, of comparable duration and velocity change, is planned for Sept. 4. Together, they will place Juno on course for its Earth flyby, which will occur as the spacecraft is completing one elliptical orbit around the sun. The Earth flyby will boost Juno's velocity by 16,330 mph (about 7.3 kilometers per second), placing the spacecraft on its final flight path for Jupiter. The closest approach to Earth, on Oct. 9, 2013, will occur when Juno is at an altitude of about 310 miles (500 kilometers).

"We still have the Earth flyby and another 1.4 billion miles and four years to go to get to Jupiter," said Scott Bolton, Juno's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "The team will be busy during that whole time, collecting science on the way out to Jupiter and getting ready for our prime mission at Jupiter, which is focused on learning the history of how our solar system was formed. We need to go to Jupiter to learn our history because Jupiter is the largest of the planets, and it formed by grabbing most of the material left over from the sun's formation. Earth and the other planets are really made from the leftovers of the leftovers, so if we want to learn about the history of the elements that made Earth and life, we need to first understand what happened when Jupiter formed."

Juno was launched on Aug. 5, 2011. Once in orbit, the spacecraft will circle Jupiter 33 times, from pole-to-pole, and use its collection of eight science instruments to probe beneath the gas giant's obscuring cloud cover. Juno's science team will learn about Jupiter's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere, and look for a potential solid planetary core.

Juno's name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature.

[url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/multimedia/pia16118.html][b][i]Juno Main Engine Firing[/i][/b][/url] - [i]Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech[/i]

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NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully executed a second Deep Space Maneuver, called DSM-2 last Friday, Sept. 14. The 30 minute firing of its main engine refined the Jupiter-bound spacecraft's trajectory, setting the stage for a gravity assist from a flyby of Earth on Oct 9, 2013. Juno will arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016.

The maneuver began at 3:30 p.m. PDT (6:30 p.m. EDT), when the Leros-1b main engine began to fire. The burn ended at 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT). Based on telemetry, the Juno project team believes the burn was accurate, changing the spacecraft's velocity by about 867 mph (388 meters a second) while consuming about 829 pounds (376 kilograms) of fuel.

The burn occurred when Juno was more than 298 million miles (480 million kilometers) from Earth.

Juno executed its first deep space maneuver (DSM-1), one of comparable duration and velocity change, on Aug. 30. Together, both maneuvers placed Juno on course for its Earth flyby, which will occur as the spacecraft is completing one elliptical orbit around the sun. The Earth flyby will boost Juno's velocity by 16,330 mph (about 7.3 kilometers per second), placing the spacecraft on its final flight path for Jupiter. The closest approach to Earth, on Oct. 9, 2013, will occur when Juno is at an altitude of about 348 miles (560 kilometers).

"It feels like we hit back-to-back home runs here with the near-flawless propulsion system performance seen during both DSM-1 and DSM-2." said Juno Project Manager Rick Nybakken of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "These successes move us closer to being ready for our most critical mission event, the Jupiter Orbit Insertion main engine burn in July 2016. We're not in the playoffs yet, as that will come in 2016 when we arrive at Jupiter, but it does feel fantastic to have hit both of these DSMs out of the park."

Engineers have deftly managed to successfully restore NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno probe back to full operation following an unexpected glitch that placed the ship into ‘safe mode’ during the speed boosting swing-by of Earth on Wednesday, Oct. 9 – the mission’s top scientist told Universe Today late Friday.

“Juno came out of safe mode today!” Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton happily told me Friday evening. Bolton is from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio, Texas.

The solar powered Juno spacecraft conducted a crucial slingshot maneuver by Earth on Wednesday that accelerated its velocity by 16,330 mph (26,280 km/h) thereby enabling it to be captured into polar orbit about Jupiter on July 4, 2016. ...

[img3="Juno's Arrival at Jupiter (Artist's Concept) - Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech"]http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA19639.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

Since its launch five years ago, there have been three forces tugging at NASA's Juno spacecraft as it speeds through the solar system. The sun, Earth and Jupiter have all been influential -- a gravitational trifecta of sorts. At times, Earth was close enough to be the frontrunner. More recently, the sun has had the most clout when it comes to Juno's trajectory. Today, it can be reported that Jupiter is now in the gravitational driver's seat, and the basketball court-sized spacecraft is not looking back.

"Today the gravitational influence of Jupiter is neck and neck with that of the sun," said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "As of tomorrow, and for the rest of the mission, we project Jupiter's gravity will dominate as the trajectory-perturbing effects by other celestial bodies are reduced to insignificant roles."

Juno was launched on Aug. 5, 2011. On July 4 of this year, it will perform a Jupiter orbit insertion maneuver -- a 35-minute burn of its main engine, which will impart a mean change in velocity of 1,212 mph (542 meters per second) on the spacecraft. Once in orbit, the spacecraft will circle the Jovian world 37 times, skimming to within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops. During the flybys, Juno will probe beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and study its auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Juno's name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The mythical god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife -- the goddess Juno -- was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature. ...

[c][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2fknqVk2yk[/youtube]Jupiter: Into the Unknown (NASA Juno Mission Trailer)[/c][hr][/hr]

On July 4, NASA will fly a solar-powered spacecraft the size of a basketball court within 2,900 miles (4,667 kilometers) of the cloud tops of our solar system’s largest planet.

As of Thursday, Juno is 18 days and 8.6 million miles (13.8 million kilometers) from Jupiter. On the evening of July 4, Juno will fire its main engine for 35 minutes, placing it into a polar orbit around the gas giant. During the flybys, Juno will probe beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and study its auroras to learn more about the planet's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere. ...

A series of 37 planned close approaches during the mission will eclipse the previous record for Jupiter set in 1974 by NASA's Pioneer 11 spacecraft of 27,000 miles (43,000 kilometers). Getting this close to Jupiter does not come without a price -- one that will be paid each time Juno's orbit carries it toward the swirling tumult of orange, white, red and brown clouds that cover the gas giant. ...

The source of potential trouble can be found inside Jupiter itself. Well below the Jovian cloud tops is a layer of hydrogen under such incredible pressure it acts as an electrical conductor. Scientists believe that the combination of this metallic hydrogen along with Jupiter's fast rotation -- one day on Jupiter is only 10 hours long -- generates a powerful magnetic field that surrounds the planet with electrons, protons and ions traveling at nearly the speed of light. The endgame for any spacecraft that enters this doughnut-shaped field of high-energy particles is an encounter with the harshest radiation environment in the solar system. ...

Spectacular VLT images of Jupiter presented just days before the arrival of the Juno spacecraft

[img3="Credit: ESO/L. Fletcher"]https://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/eso1623a.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

In preparation for the imminent arrival of NASA’s Juno spacecraft, astronomers have used ESO’s Very Large Telescope to obtain spectacular new infrared images of Jupiter. They are part of a campaign to create high-resolution maps of the giant planet. These observations will inform the work to be undertaken by Juno over the coming months, helping astronomers to better understand the gas giant ahead of Juno’s close encounter.

A team led by Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom are presenting new images of Jupiter at the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Nottingham. Obtained with the VISIR instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the new images are part of a focused effort to improve understanding of Jupiter’s atmosphere prior to the arrival of NASA’s Juno spacecraft in July this year.

The campaign has involved the use of several telescopes based in Hawaii and Chile, as well as contributions from amateur astronomers around the world. The maps do not just give snapshots of the planet, they also reveal how Jupiter’s atmosphere has been shifting and changing in the months prior to Juno’s arrival. ...

• Icarus (in press 18 June 2016) DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2016.06.008
  arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1606.05498 > 17 June 2016