Image Cache: On July 4, NASA’s Juno spacecraft will arrive in orbit around Jupiter for a new scientific mission that seeks to solve the decades-long mystery of what lies beneath the gas giant’s swirling cloud tops. As the latest stunning image from the spacecraft’s approach shows, we’re getting really close.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Browse through the cool photos, animations and diagrams in Gizmodo’s Image Cache here.
Juno is closing in on Jupiter’s north pole, affording the spacecraft a sweeping view of the planet and its four largest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This portrait was captured from a distance of 11 million kilometres with JunoCam, a citizen science camera that will allow the Jupiter-fearing public to gaze nervously upon the gas giant’s vast ammonia thunderclouds in high-resolution while the radiation-hardened spacecraft maps the planet’s atmosphere and magnetic field over the course of a year.
Gizmodo will be bringing you plenty more information and insights about the Juno mission in the days to come.