Juno probe to make its closest approach to Jupiter tomorrow!

NASA’s Juno space probe is today set to pass the closest it will get to the planet Jupiter during the main phase of its planned mission to the gas giant, the U.S. space agency’s officials said.

Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 4, will pass about 4200 kilometres above Jupiter’s swirling clouds on Saturday, the USA space agency says.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft will get a first close look at Jupiter this Saturday.

As it cruises by at a speed of 130,000 miles per hour, Juno is expected to capture astonishing images and plenty of scientific data, say mission controllers at Nasa. When Juno put itself into Jupiter’s orbit on the Fourth, NASA turned off the vehicle’s instruments to make sure nothing interfered with the insertion process.

Once it completes Saturday’s flyby, Juno will head back out into space for another 53.5-day orbit, and then settle into smaller, roughly two-week orbits thereafter. So for this upcoming flyby Juno’s eyes and ears, our science instruments, will all be open.

Artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter.

In addition to the science instruments, Juno’s camera – JunoCam – will also be in action to snap some close-up pictures of Jupiter. Although data from the probe is expected to reach Earth in several days, results from scientists’ analysis will take longer.

Juno was launched August 5, 2011, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket.

Steve Levin, a Juno project scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said there are bound to be surprises since this is the first time that the agency has gotten so close to Jupiter.

A spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter will make a record-breaking close approach to the huge planet on Saturday.

NASA’s Juno mission successfully executed its first of 36 orbital flybys of Jupiter today.

It’s going to be an exciting next few weeks, but the real fun starts after October 19, when Juno will undergo another engine burn to bring it to a 14-day orbit about the planet.

Even though this will be Juno’s first pass by Jupiter and even though it will be collecting a lot of information, don’t expect to see or hear anything really cool anytime soon. It will be NASA’s first close approach to Jupiter since it brought Juno into orbit around the planet back in July, and it will be the closest mankind has ever gotten to Jupiter. JunoCam has also recorded imagery of Jupiter for almost a full orbit of the planet, and scientists will assemble the pictures into a time-lapse “marble movie” showing its motion since early July.

Now, the spacecraft has come back around, with all its science instruments ready to go. This view was taken when Juno was 437,000 miles away. Caltech in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.