News Archive / Tagged: Jupiter

• Juno completes 3rd orbit, captures ‘pearl’

  Derek RichardsonDecember 14th, 2016

  Streaking by at about 129,000 mph (57.8 kilometers per second), NASA’s Juno spacecraft completed its third flyby some 2,580 miles (4,150 kilometers) over Jupiter's cloud tops. The close approach occurred at 12:04 a.m. EST (17:04 GMT) Dec. 11, 2016.

• A first look at Jupiter through the eyes of Juno

  Mackenzie KaneOctober 29th, 2016

  As NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has taught us, finding planets around other stars is not uncommon – it is actually expected. However, what continues to puzzle scientists to this day is how the Solar System formed with terrestrial planets closest to the Sun and icy gas giants farther away, separated by an asteroid belt of planetary debris.

• Juno spacecraft goes into safe mode prior to flyby

  Jim SharkeyOctober 20th, 2016

  NASA's Juno spacecraft entered safe mode on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 10:47 p.m. PDT (Oct. 19 at 1:47 a.m. EDT / 05:47 GMT). For reasons that aren't fully known yet, a software performance monitor induced a reboot of the spacecraft's onboard computer. Juno restarted successfully and is healthy.

• NASA: Europa may have plumes of water being jettisoned into space

  Jason RhianSeptember 26th, 2016

  NASA announced on Monday, Sept. 26, a discovery regarding the Galilean moon Europa. Hubble Space Telescope observations show the moon appears to be jettisoning plumes of water out into space.

• NASA’s Juno spacecraft captures images of Jupiter’s poles

  Jim SharkeySeptember 4th, 2016

  On Friday, Sept. 2, NASA released the first images from the Juno spacecraft's close approach of Jupiter, which occurred on Aug. 27. The images include first-ever views of Jupiter's north pole showing storms and weather systems unlike any seen before on any of the Solar System's other gas-giant planets.

• NASA’s Juno spacecraft to make closest approach of Jupiter August 27

  Jim SharkeyAugust 26th, 2016

  NASA's Juno spacecraft will get closer to the cloud tops of Jupiter than at any other time during its primary mission on Saturday, Aug. 27, at 5:51 a.m. PDT (8:51 a.m. EDT; 12:51 GMT). Juno will be about 2,500 miles (4,200 kilometers) above the giant planet's swirling clouds at the moment of closest approach and traveling at 130,000 mph (208,000 km/h) with respect to Jupiter.

• Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is heat source for its upper atmosphere

  Jim SharkeyAugust 2nd, 2016

  A NASA-funded study published in the July 27 issue of the journal Nature suggests Jupiter's Great Red Spot may be the heat source behind surprisingly high temperatures in the giant planet's upper atmosphere. Temperatures in Jupiter's upper atmosphere are similar to those found at Earth, despite the gas giant being more than five times farther away from the Sun.

• Juno spacecraft sends first in-orbit view of Jupiter

  Jim SharkeyJuly 16th, 2016

  NASA recently released the first view of Jupiter taken by the Juno spacecraft since its July 4 arrival at the giant planet. JunoCam, the spacecraft's visible light camera, was turned on six days after Juno executed a 35-minute engine burn to place the vehicle in orbit around Jupiter. Juno will be in a position to take high-resolution images of Jupiter in late August.

• NASA’s Juno spacecraft inserted into orbit above Jupiter

  Jim SharkeyJuly 5th, 2016

  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California, heralded the arrival of the Juno spacecraft in orbit above the gas giant Jupiter on July 4, 2016, at 8:18 p.m. PDT (11:18 p.m. EDT / 03:18 GMT on July 5). This was the culmination of an almost five-year journey through the black of space.

• How much water is inside Jupiter? NASA’s Juno spacecraft is about to find out

  Tomasz NowakowskiJune 30th, 2016

  NASA’s Juno spacecraft is just a few days shy of its arrival at the Solar System’s biggest planet. The highly anticipated mission is about to take a peek into the real nature of Jupiter, hopefully providing new insights about the structure of this gaseous giant. Juno could be on the verge of redefining our current knowledge about what lies deep beneath Jupiter’s thick and violent atmosphere.

• NASA’s Juno spacecraft closes in on Jupiter

  Jim SharkeyJune 18th, 2016

  NASA held a media briefing on Thursday, June 16, to discuss the July 4th arrival of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter. As of Thursday, the solar-powered spacecraft, which is roughly the size of a basketball court, was 18 days and 8.6 million miles (13.8 million kilometers) from Jupiter.

• Juno spacecraft nears July 4 rendezvous with Jupiter

  Jim SharkeyMay 27th, 2016

  NASA's Juno spacecraft is poised to arrive and enter into orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016, completing a nearly six-year-long voyage. Juno is scheduled to orbit the largest planet in the Solar System for 20 months as it studies Jupiter's atmosphere, interior, and magnetic fields.

• Subsurface ocean on Europa could be habitable for life

  Laurel KornfeldMay 18th, 2016

  Jupiter's moon Europa has long been thought to harbor a subsurface ocean of liquid water. Now, a study conducted by a group of scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) suggests that ocean may have a balance of hydrogen and oxygen similar to that found in oceans on Earth.

• Juno spacecraft breaks solar power distance record

  Jim SharkeyJanuary 14th, 2016

  NASA's Juno mission has broken the record for distance traveled by a solar-powered spacecraft. Juno reached this milestone at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST) on Wednesday, Jan. 13, when the spacecraft was approximately 493 million miles (793 million kilometers) from the Sun.

• NASA’s proposed Lucy mission to study ‘fossils’ of planets’ formation

  Tomasz NowakowskiOctober 20th, 2015

  A NASA mission to study five primitive asteroids (referred to as Trojans) orbiting near Jupiter has entered its concept design study phase. The spacecraft, named Lucy after the iconic hominin skeleton, will try to answer essential questions about the origin of the Solar System.