Nasa's Juno probe sends back first picture of Jupiter orbit

The first image of the Juno probe's Jupiter orbit

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13 July 2016

Nasa’s Juno mission to Jupiter has sent back the first picture of its orbit around the planet.

The image shows a sunlit portion of Jupiter, together with three of its largest moons - Io, Europa and Ganymede.

The Juno space probe was circling three million miles away from the planet but even at that distance was able to see Jupiter’s Great Red Spot - a centuries-old atmospheric storm.

Scott Bolton, principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said: “This scene from JunoCam indicates it survived its first pass through Jupiter’s extreme radiation environment without any degradation and is ready to take on Jupiter,”

The probe went into orbit around the planet last week after a five-year journey, in a move hailed as the “hardest thing Nasa’s ever done”.

Juno is now moving away from Jupiter on a large arc but will sweep back in during August, enabling the camera to take even better close-up images.

Some of the passes in October will be just 3,100 miles from the planet’s swirling clouds.

The spacecraft, named after the Roman goddess and wife of Jupiter, is packed with instruments capable of peering into the planet’s heart.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is so big it can be seen from Earth without a telescope.

But scientists are not even sure if there is a solid core and hope the probe’s 20-month mission will shed new light on the planet’s atmosphere, interior and poles.

During its approach last week, Juno’s camera and instruments were powered off as a precaution against the Jupiter’s intense radiation.

Nasa said the mission team was now turning on all the probe’s instruments to check their status before detailed work to study Jupiter begins.

Meanwhile, UK astronaut Tim Peake landed at Heathrow today following his historic six-month stay on the International Space Station.

Major Peake, who made the first spacewalk by a British astronaut during his time in space, has been undergoing tests since returning to Earth last month.

This week he will be appearing at the Farnborough Air Show as part of efforts to encourage young people to become interested in aerospace and engineering.

Juno was launched by an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 5, 2011.

It will eventually be crashed into Jupiter, in February 2018, to stop it hitting and contaminating Jovian moons such as Europa that are thought to be capable of supporting microbial life.

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