After a 5 year long journey, Juno has finally began orbiting Jupiter!
Juno was launched August 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It underwent an Earth Gravity Assist during October 2013. It is currently undergoing its first polar orbit, and October of this year it will preform another burn to make its orbit 14 days long. After that, it will be in Science Phase and preform 37 orbits until February 2018, when it will deorbit and disintegrate in Jupiter's atmosphere.
It will figure out things such as:
The ratio of oxygen to hydrogen, effectively measuring the abundance of water in Jupiter, which will help distinguish among prevailing theories linking Jupiter's formation to the Solar System.
Precisely map Jupiter's gravitational field to assess the distribution of mass in Jupiter's interior, including properties of its structure and dynamics.
Precisely map Jupiter's magnetic field to assess the origin and structure of the field and how deep in Jupiter the magnetic field is created
Characterize and explore the three-dimensional structure of Jupiter's polar magnetosphere and its auroras.
And more! This probe is really one to be excited about.
