Earthlings, Welcome to Jupiter!

Image courtesy: NASA.gov
Deepu Aby Varghese Deepu Aby Varghese folomojo staff

For the last millennia Jupiter was but a wandering star, for Galileo a revelation. Now after a 1.7 billion kilometer trek from Earth which lasted for nearly five years, NASA’s Juno probe was sucked into the orbit of solar gas giant – Jupiter at around 8.45 am IST (11.53 pm EDT).

The last man-made probe to enter Jupiter’s orbit was NASA’s Galileo mission in 1995.

So as to inject the probe into the orbit or Jupiter Insertion Orbit (JOI), Juno fired its main engine in a crucial 35-minute burn that slowed the probe down enough to be captured by Jupiter’s powerful gravity.

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JOI was confirmed in the mission control of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena in California after the craft sent back a sequence of tones which was received as ‘three-second-long’ beep.

Guess the passengers on-board Juno veering to Jupiter’s orbit?

Check out Juno’s capture of the motion of Jupiter’s moons – Ganymede, Lo and Europa around it

The transmission from the spacecraft confirmed the braking manoeuvre had gone as planned.

Receipt of the radio messages prompted wild cheering at Nasa’s mission control.

“All stations on Juno co-ord, we have the tone for burn cut-off on Delta B,” Juno Mission Control had announced. “Roger Juno, welcome to Jupiter.”