A single video: the approximation of the Juno spacecraft to Jupiter and its moons dance – La Nacion (Argentina)

The NASA spacecraft managed to capture the orbit of its four largest moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, as it approached its orbit

Jupiter and its largest moons dance Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Photo: File

Juno was the sister and wife of Jupiter in Roman mythology. Today, NASA spacecraft takes its name began to make history today, upon reaching the orbit of the largest planet in the Solar System, a mission in which he will get closer than anyone to unveil its mysteries.

the probe is the first designed to operate in the heart of the radiation belts of Jupiter, the first to reach 2575 kilometers from their superiors clouds and it will take every 14 days images with higher resolution never seen the giant planet , culminating mission in February 2018.

“This is the most difficult feat that has never gotten NASA,” said Scott Bolton, the principal investigator for the mission, the rest of his team in Pasadena (California) when the success of the maneuver entry into orbit was confirmed.

An unpublished video

While the first photographs taken by the ship, take a few days to get processed Earth, scientists could get something historic that never before achieved, except with computer simulations. a video of how Jupiter moves in space and how to dance in orbit its nearest moons

One of its nine instruments achieved the unprecedented video before beginning to orbit the planet. There the image of Jupiter and its nearby moons seen gliding around this at different speeds.

“Throughout our history we have never really been able to see the movement of a celestial body against another,” Bolton said after showing the video during a press conference after the entry into orbit of the probe.

“This is the king of our solar system and his disciples revolving around it. for me it is very significant. Finally you are able to see a real video, with real shots, this movement, which until now only had been able to imagine, “he said.

During the next 20 months, the unmanned spacecraft and the size of a basketball court, give 37 laps to Jupiter’s orbit in which it will try to unravel the three main mysteries of the largest planet in our solar system, where perfectly can fit more than 1,000 Earths.

satellites of Jupiter

They are called the four Galilean moons and is its largest moons. They were discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei and were the first objects found to orbit a different body to Earth or the sun.

The Galilean moons are by far the largest objects in orbit around Jupiter, as exceed 3100 km in diameter, when the remaining 63 and the rings comprise only 0.003 percent of the total orbital mass.

Eight of Jupiter’s moons are regular satellites with prograde orbits and almost circular that no they are highly inclined with respect to the equatorial plane of the planet. The Galilean satellites are ellipsoidal due to having planetary mass, so that would be considered dwarf planets if they were in direct orbit around the sun.