Juno to probe Jupiter’s secrets

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is the first to look beneath Jupiter’s dense cloud cover in an effort to shed light on the giant planet’s origins and evolution

Solar array: 9m long –largest ever deployed in space – to providepower in low light conditions

MISSION TIMELINE

Launch Aug 2011

Earth fly-by Oct 2013

Deep space manoeuvres Sep 2012

Mission end: Feb 2018 – Juno de-orbits and crashes into Jupiter

Jupiter arrival Jul 2016 – probe enters polar orbit for 20-month science mission

Payload: Nine instruments to study atmosphere, gravity, magnetic field and possible existence of solid core

JUPITER

Earth to scale

Diameter: 142,000km (11 times size of Earth)

Volume: 1,320 Earthscould fit inside Jupiter

Distance from sun 780 million km. Takes 12 Earth years to orbit sun

Length of day: 10 hours

Average temperature–145°C (at top of clouds)

Composition: Hydrogen 90%, Helium 10%

Known moons: 67

Source / Picture: NASA