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NASA’s Juno spacecraft has returned new images of Jupiter after its 66th close flyby as it enters the final year of its mission. The $1 billion spacecraft completed its latest close flyby on Oct. 23, 2024, dipping close to its poles, the first mission to do so.
Juno, which has been in orbit around Jupiter since July 2016, has sent back thousands of unprecedented high-resolution images of the planet’s atmosphere and several of its moons. It’s latest tranche are equally as spell-binding. During this latest flyby, the spacecraft passed close to Amalthea, Jupiter's fifth-largest moon, characterized by its potato-like shape and small size.
With a radius of 52 miles (84 kilometers), it is significantly smaller than Earth's moon and orbits closer to Jupiter than Io. Its two-megapixel camera, JunoCam, continues to capture images that reveal intricate details of Jupiter’s weather patterns, including its colorful bands and storms. Besides JunoCam, the spacecraft has a magnetometer, a gravity science system and a microwave radiometer.
Remarkably, the Juno mission has no dedicated team of image-processing scientists. Instead, citizen scientists download the raw data — which JunoCam captures as it spins — who painstakingly process them and upload them to a dedicated mission website, many of them in creative versions. There are now two missions on their way to the gas giant planet to replace Juno.
Jupiter’s moon Callisto will be imaged 21 times during close flybys by the European Space Agency's JUICE spacecraft, which launched last year and will reach the Jovian System in 2031. JUICE will also photograph Europa before eventually going into orbit around Ganymede for 18 months. NASA’s Europa Clipper, launched earlier this month, will reach Jupiter in 2030 to tour Jupiter’s moons, focusing on Europa.
Juno’s next close flyby of Jupiter, perijove 66, will occur on Nov. 25, 2024. The Juno mission is scheduled to end on Sept.
15, 2025, when Juno will perform a “death dive” into the gas giant during its 76th perijove to be destroyed. This will ensure it doesn't crash into one of the moons of Jupiter that could potentially host life, specifically Europa. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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