Juno mission: Probe to reach Jupiter after 1.4 billion mile journey

An armour-shielded spacecraft is due to reach Jupiter early tomorrow after completing a five year, 1.4 billion mile journey from Earth.
The Juno spacecraft approaching Jupiter. Image: NASAThe Juno spacecraft approaching Jupiter. Image: NASA
The Juno spacecraft approaching Jupiter. Image: NASA

The Juno probe will orbit closer to the giant planet than any spacecraft has done before, flying to within 2,900 miles of Jupiter’s swirling cloud tops.

It will study the planet’s composition, gravity, magnetic field and the source of its raging 384mph winds, while a panoramic camera will also 
take spectacular colour photos.

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To complete its mission, Juno will have to survive a radiation storm generated by Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field. The maelstrom of high energy particles travelling at nearly the speed of light is believed to be the harshest radiation environment in the Solar System.

To cope, the spacecraft is protected by special radiation-hardened wiring and sensor shielding. Its all-important “brain” – the flight computer – is housed in a 400lbs armoured vault made of titanium.

Dr Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio in the USA, said: “We are not looking for trouble, we are looking for data. Problem is, at Jupiter, looking for the kind of data Juno is looking for, you have to go in the kind of neighbourhoods where you could find trouble pretty quick.”

The previous record for a close approach to Jupiter was set by the American space agency Nasa’s Pioneer 11 spacecraft which passed by at a distance of 27,000 miles in 1974. Only one previous spacecraft, Galileo, which visited Jupiter and its moons from 1995 to 2003, has orbited the planet.

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