‘Juno completes eighth flyby of Jupiter’

WASHINGTON: Nasa’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft has successfully completed its eighth science flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops, the US space agency said on Friday. The confirmation of the flyby, performed on October 24, was delayed by several days due to solar conjunction at Jupiter, which affected communications during the days prior to and after the flyby, Nasa said. Solar conjunction is the period when the path of communication between Earth and Jupiter comes into close proximity with the Sun.

“All the science collected during the flyby was carried in Juno’s memory until Thursday, when Jupiter came out of solar conjunction,” said Juno project manager, Ed Hirst, from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Nasa’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft has successfully completed its eighth science flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops, the US space agency said on Friday.