NASA’s unmanned Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter
Q. NASA’s spacecraft has begun orbiting Jupiter, a key triumph for the USD 1.1 billion mission to uncover origins of the largest planet in the solar system?- Published on 06 Jul 16a. Juno
b. Cassini
c. MOM
d. None of the above
ANSWER: Juno
NASA’s unmanned Juno spacecraft on 3rd July 2016 has begun orbiting Jupiter, a key victory for the USD 1.1 billion mission to uncover the origins of the biggest planet in the solar system
- NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California also issued a welcome message from the mission control
- Solar observatory which has travelled 1.7 billion miles (2.7 billion km) since it launched 5 years ago from Cape Canaveral, Florida entered the aimed for orbit around Jupiter at 11:53 pm
- Juno should circle the planet 37 times before making a death plunge in 2018 to prevent the spacecraft from damaging icy moons of Jupiter
- Juno will not be the first spacecraft to circle Jupiter as NASA indicates the orbit will bring it closer than predecessor Galileo launched in 1989.
- Galileo found evidence of subsurface saltwater on Jupiter’s moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto before taking the final plunge into Jupiter in 2003
