NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Snaps Jupiter Like Never Before

NASA has always been on the forefront and yet again they have proved their expertise. In a recent development, NASA’s shared photos of a complex surface of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system, is known for its own magnetic field. Read to know more

Details about the spectacle captured

The image taken by JunoCam during the close Ganymede pass shows one of the dark-rayed craters. The picture was taken when NASA’s Juno spacecraft approached the giant planet during a regular close pass. The crescent shape of Jupiter can never be captured from telescopes on Earth’s surface. The blog post explained why this was so. It stated that this image of Jupiter in a crescent phase, unlike the Moon or Venus, was difficult to observe from Earth, even with the aid of a telescope.
The post went on to add that Jupiter’s orbit was outside the Earth’s, hence an observer on Earth can only view the side of Jupiter that is illuminated by the Sun. So, the planet appears to be full at all times.
This backlit view of the crescent Jupiter from Juno was taken by using raw data from the JunoCam instrument.

Juno’s Spacecraft

NASA’s 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. Using NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System and simulated data from the Juno flight team you can ride onboard the Juno spacecraft in real-time at any moment during the entire mission.