Nasa releases first image of Juno orbit of Jupiter

The probe’s visible-light camera, known as JunoCam, was switched on six days after it arrived at Jupiter.

The spacecraft is still a few days away from reaching Jupiter, but it has already collecting data on the giant planet, said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno mission from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno spacecraft sent back the first image of Jupiter this week.

You’ll have to wait a bit for a better view, however – the first high-resolution shots will be taken on August 27th.

“We’re quite pleased that we survived going through Jupiter orbit insertion”, Candice Hansen-Koharcheck, a scientist at Planetary Science Institute who is responsible for the operation of the camera, told the New York Times.

Juno took the image when it began its 53.4-day orbit of Jupiter, however, a final engine burn is expected to bring that down to a mere 14-day orbit soon. The spacecraft’s first image from Jupiter since its dramatic arrival around the planet on July 4 shows three of the planet’s four largest moons, Europa, Io, and Ganymede as well as details on Jupiter, such as its famous Red Spot.

The first image sent back (above) was taken on 10th July when the craft was 4.3 million kilometres away from Jupiter.

The robotic craft is carrying a crew of sorts; three 1.5-inch tall aluminum Lego figures representing the 17th-century Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter, and the deity’s wife, Juno, are onboard the Jupiter probe.

During the approach, the camera and instruments were powered off as a precaution as Juno braved intense radiation. At the end of the mission, the probe will crash into Jupiter proving not all family reunions are happy ones.

As you watch the time lapse video you occasionally see some of the moons disappear as they move into Jupiter’s shadow. At its farthest point, Juno will be 2.7 million kilometers from Jupiter.

The Juno team is now working to place all images taken by JunoCam on the mission’s website, where the public can access them.

The mission to get Juno to its current home was among the most hard things Nasa has ever done, officials said, and the work that it will do from now could be among the most important.