In just a few days, we may decipher the mysterious secrets of the most dangerous gas giant of our solar system—Jupiter.
On 4 July, NASA hopes to have a sneak peek into this exotic planetary body with its basketball-court-sized spacecraft Juno. The spacecraft, which took-off from NASA’s Cape Canaveral station in 2011, is currently nearing Jupiter’s slingshot orbit after completing a whopping 600 million kilometre ride through space.
Having considered the enormity of radiations emanating from the gas giant, which could possibly destroy the spacecraft, NASA’s orbit design engineers have prepared Juno to perform 37 close and high-velocity slingshot fly-bys.
The slingshot fly-bys in a near-orbit would enable Juno to obtain valuable data. However, if NASA fails to inject the spacecraft into the predetermined orbits, Juno would be fried by Jupiter’s deadly radiations.
A day on Jupiter is only 10 hours long. The planet’s quick rotation creates a powerful magnetic field, coupled with extremely high levels of radiation and atmospheric pressure, and could affect mission.
In fact, according to NASA, Jupiter’s radiation-filled environment is the strongest in the solar system.
However, scientists hope that Juno’s anti-radiation armours would be sufficient to protect the spacecraft and its titanium vault (which houses the central computer) from cosmic carnage. Additionally, the predesigned orbital fly-by is also expected to save the spacecraft from radiation exposure.
Last year, the spacecraft called New Horizons provided a lot of information about the dwarf planet Pluto after the fly-by along its orbit.
Juno is set to become the first spacecraft to ever pull off such a detailed and close fly-by of the gas giant. However, the first spacecraft to reach Jupiter was Pioneer 10 back in 1973. It provided the first close-up images of the planet.
Pioneer 10 was followed a year later by Pioneer 11, which flew within 34,000 kilometres (21,127 miles) of Jupiter’s clouds. Juno, on the other hand, is expected to fly much closer—just 4,667 kilometres (2,900 miles) above the clouds.
