Space probe to expose Jupiter’s ”face”

Jupiter is the closest of the outer planets, but scientists still do not know the most basic things about the planet. NASA’s Juno probe is changing that.

For years, astronomers have struggled in vain to see through the thick cloud cover surrounding the largest Solar System planet, Jupiter, and even today, they do not know what makes up the giant and its atmosphere or whether there is an ocean on its surface.

NASA’s Juno probe is meant to change this fact. After travelling three billion km, the probe arrived to Jupiter last summer and began the major project, using its nine primary instruments – including a gravimeter, two plasma detectors, and a magnetometer. The Juno probe has already taken the first photos of Jupiter’s north pole, revealing spiral-shaped weather systems that differ from the horizontal stripes in Jupiter’s cloud cover.