Fireworks likely as Juno kisses Jupiter
NASA craft to slip into gas giant’s orbit on 4th of July
LOS ANGELES — A NASA spacecraft is bound for a Fourth of July encounter with Jupiter in the latest quest to study how the largest planet in the solar system formed and evolved.
As Juno approaches Jupiter’s harsh radiation environment, it will fire its main engine to slow down and then slip into orbit around the planet.
“It’s a one-shot deal,” said mission chief scientist Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “Everything is riding on it.”
If all goes as planned, Juno will spend nearly a year circling Jupiter’s poles and peering through clouds to scrutinize the planet’s southern and northern lights, which are considered the strongest in the solar system.
“Jupiter is a planet on steroids. Everything about it is extreme,” Bolton said during a recent briefing for reporters at NASA headquarters in Washington.
Since the 1970s, spacecraft have circled or zipped past Jupiter, sending back stunning views of the planet’s signature Great Red Spot — a long-lived storm — and numerous moons. The most extensive study came from the Galileo spacecraft, which dropped a probe on the surface. Galileo explored Jupiter and its moons for 14 years.
Unlike Earth, a rocky planet, Jupiter is a gas giant made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. Scientists still don’t know whether Jupiter has a solid core or how much oxygen and water it has — information that could help unravel how Earth and the solar system came to be.
The trip to Jupiter — the fifth planet from the sun — took the solar-powered Juno nearly five years. The spacecraft is slated to complete its mission in 2018.