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<\/p>\nJuno, NASA\u2019s flagship mission to Jupiter, marks five years at the solar system\u2019s largest planet today, having been in space for nearly 10 years since its launch. Juno quickly became one of NASA\u2019s most scientifically important missions upon its arrival, with its Ultraviolet Spectrograph and Advanced Stellar Compass instruments used to reveal many unique scientific phenomena at Jupiter and throughout the solar system.<\/p>\n
Recently, two teams published research highlighting the mystery of the solar system\u2019s zodiacal light and the origins of Jupiter\u2019s auroral dawn storms using the Juno\u2019s instruments.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Juno\u2019s changed mission<\/b><\/p>\n
While the science Juno has returned has provided tremendous insight into Jupiter and its family of moons, its journey through the Jovian system has not exactly been as NASA hoped when the craft launched on 5 August 2011 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket from what was then Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.<\/p>\n
After a single gravity assist with Earth on 9 October 2013 when it came within 559 km of Earth sea level, Juno\u2019s next major event was its 4 July 2016 Eastern Daylight Time (5 July UTC) orbital insertion burn at Jupiter.<\/p>\n
Juno\u2019s single engine fired for a 2,102 second braking maneuver, lowering the craft\u2019s velocity by 542 m\/s to achieve a highly elliptical, polar orbit capture around the planet. This initial orbit brought Juno to within 4,200 km at perijove (point of closest approach in orbit of Jupiter) and to a distance of 8.1 million km at apojove over a 53.5 day period.<\/p>\n
Upon second perijove in October 2016, nearly 107 days after arrival, Juno was to fire its engine again to reduce its orbit to that with a period of just 14 days \u2014 its planned science orbit. However, just days before the planned firing, teams received data from the craft showing that helium valves in the propulsion system were not opening as intended.<\/p>\n
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Credit: NASA<\/p>\n
NASA decided not to risk the burn as troubleshooting continued. On 17 February 2017, NASA announced a decision to leave Juno in its 53.5 day capture orbit and perform the mission from there after deeming further using of the engine too risky to the science of the mission.<\/p>\n
In June 2018, the mission was extended until July 2021. Despite exposure to Jupiter\u2019s intense radiation fields, Juno has held up remarkably well, a testament to the engineers who designed the craft and the people who built it. In January 2021, NASA again extended the mission based on this performance through September 2025.<\/p>\n
The second extension included plans to fly the craft by Ganymede, Europa, and Io \u2014 the first of which occurred on 7 June 2021 when Juno passed within 1,038 km of Ganymede.<\/p>\n
A 320 km distant flyby of Europa is planned for late 2022, with two 1,500 km flybys of Io following in 2024. The encounters are designed to give mission planners for the upcoming Europa Clipper and JUICE missions from NASA and ESA better data ahead of those crafts\u2019 launches and arrivals.<\/p>\n
In September 2025, or when system failures mandate (whichever comes first), Juno will be purposefully deorbited into Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere. Like Galileo at Jupiter and Cassini at Saturn before it, Juno\u2019s fiery end will protect the planet\u2019s potentially life harboring moons from Earth-based contamination the probe could impart to them if left to uncontrollably wonder the Jovian system \u2014 where gravity could eventually cause it to slam into one of the moons.<\/p>\n
Jupiter\u2019s auroras<\/b><\/p>\n
While it\u2019s no secret that Jupiter and other planets in our solar system feature polar auroras, the auroral dawn storms of Jupiter are similar to a type of terrestrial auroras \u2014 and extremely powerful.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n