Early yesterday afternoon NASA’s mission to Jupiter, JUNO, made a flyby past Earth to gain momentum for its long journey to the gas giant.
Although the JUNO craft has been in space since August of 2011, the craft has been awaiting this moment, arching through the near-solar system waiting for yesterday’s gravity assist maneuver.
According to Bill Kurth, JUNO’s research scientist and lead investigator for JUNO’s wave instrument “Juno will be really smoking as it passes Earth at a speed of about 25 miles per second relative to the sun," Kurth continued, “"But it will need every bit of this speed to get to Jupiter for its July 4, 2016, capture into polar orbit about Jupiter. The first half of its journey has been simply to set up this gravity assist with Earth."
Once the JUNO reaches Jupiter it will begin its missions to study the planers composition, gravity field, magnetic field and polar magnetosphere. From these findings JUNO will give researchers clues about how the solar system’s largest body formed, if it has a solid core, or whether there is ware present in its vast atmosphere.
Image and Video Courtesy of NASA