Over the next 20 months, the probe will give 37 laps to the orbit of Jupiter to study the gas composition and reveal its mysteries
WASHINGTON July 4 (EFE) .- The Juno NASA probe made history today to reach Jupiter’s orbit after five years of mission, and became the vehicle that best approximates the giant gaseous planet, in order to decipher its mysteries and discover more about the origin of the solar system.
the probe solar-powered joined the orbit Jupiter, ending a mission that began in August 2011 and seeks to clear many questions about the largest planet, so huge solar system that it could fit Earth more than a thousand times.
“This is the more 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.
the ship, unmanned and the size of a basketball court, and made history in January by becoming the probe driven by solar energy to reach further into space, to about 793 million kilometers from the sun.
Over the next 20 months, the probe will give 37 laps to the orbit of Jupiter to help improve understanding of the first moments of the solar system by revealing the origin and evolution of its biggest planet.
Juno is the first probe 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 images higher resolution never seen the giant planet.
Now that you have completed the long and complicated maneuver of insertion into the orbit of Jupiter, the probe will approach the upper clouds of the planet every 14 days to finish the mission in February 2018, when it is scheduled to crash deliberately in the planet’s atmosphere and be destroyed.
This is the most ambitious project in Jupiter since the Galileo NASA spacecraft went into orbit in 1995 and remained there eight years, which led to the discovery that the bright planet had strong winds and their rings were formed from dust particles arrivals from surrounding moons.
About the poles
but Juno will orbit for the first time the poles of Jupiter, which Galileo did not and that will provide new answers to the mysteries on its core composition and magnetic field.
the American probe is also the first to observe what beneath the dense clouds of the planet, so that the mission is named after the goddess Juno, sister and wife of Jupiter, which according to Roman mythology, could see through the clouds.
according to the US space agency (NASA), this mission will help understand “how giant planets and the role they played in the formation of the rest of the solar system formed.” The giant planets, also called outer or gaseous, are those that are located beyond the asteroid belt, ie, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
Jupiter was probably the first planets to form around the sun because it contains many of the same light gases of which is made the star, hydrogen and helium, according to NASA.
to be composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, Jupiter must have formed while there was many of these light gases around, ie, when the solar system was young.
New frontiers
the mission of Juno has a total investment of 1.3 billion dollars and is the second probe designed by NASA program “New Frontiers” after “New Horizons”, which approached Pluto in July 2015 after nine and a half years of space journey.
Juno, the first probe orbiting from pole to pole an outer planet (which are beyond the asteroid belt), weighs 3625 kilos in total and its main body measures 3.5 meters in height and diameter.
Most of spacecraft that venture so far from the Sun need to use nuclear energy to continue, but Juno is able to generate enough power with its three huge solar panels, nine meters long each.
with its scientific instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, examine the strong magnetic field of Jupiter, measured the amount of ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the auroras of the planet .
Agencies EFE and AFP
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