NASA's Juno spacecraft has been racing around the giant planet Jupiter from last five years now and will continue to orbit for another 18 months.
Juno launched on August 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, last year. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet's cloud tops as close as about 3,400 kilometres.
Jupiter's swirling Pearl' storm: This image, taken by the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft, highlights a swirling storm just south of one of the white oval storms on Jupiter. (Photo: NASA)
Jupiter's Little Red Spot: This view of Jupiter, taken by the JunoCam imager of NASA's Juno spacecraft, highlights Oval BA (Photo: NASA)
Closer View of Jupiter's South Tropical Zone: An even closer view of the bright clouds that dot Jupiter's south tropical zone, as seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft. (Photo: NASA)
Closer look at Jupiter's cloud: An even closer view of Jupiter's clouds obtained by NASA's Juno spacecraft. (Photo: NASA_
Jupiter's South Pole: This image shows Jupiter's south pole, as seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers). The oval features are cyclones, up to 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter. Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas. (Photo: NASA)
Jupiter's clouds many colours: NASA's Juno spacecraft was racing away from Jupiter following its seventh close pass of the planet when JunoCam snapped this image on May 19, 2017, from about 29,100 miles (46,900 kilometers) above the cloud tops. (Photo: NASA)
Juno\'s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars. (All images - Source - NASA)
NASA's Juno spacecraft has been racing around the giant planet Jupiter from last five years now and will continue to orbit for another 18 months.