Juno documentary. Juno is a probe built by NASA which is currently five years into a six year mission to the 5th planet from the sun, Jupiter. Juno left Earth on August 5th 2011 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on its one way mission. The main scientific goal of Juno is to go into a polar orbit around the largest orbital body of the sun and make observations, these observations will include the study of Jupiters composition which despite there having been a number of missions to the gas giant still remains very much a mystery. Two of the other important goals to be achieved is the study of the polar magnetosphere and it’s overall magnetic field.
Juno is powered by solar panels much like those found on many low Earth orbiting GPS satellites however Juno has three of the largest solar panels ever created for a probe. The reason for this is because of the immense distance juno is from the sun where it’s rays carry only a fraction of the energy as they do at Earth-sun distance. A side benefit to this feature is that they can be used to help stabilise the craft and make course tweaks if needed.
After many years of travelling Juno is soon going to be showing us more of Jupiters secrets since the probe is expected to be put into orbit on the 4th July 2016. Upon arrival Juno would have travelled a distance of around 2.8 billion kilometres and from then on its straight down to gathering data as scientists have around 20 months and 37 orbits to do it within as is explained in this Juno documentary created by NASA.
The information that is hoped to be revealed will tell us more about the origins of the planet, how it formed and how is came to be in its current orbit. Juno will use its powerful infrared instruments to peer deep below the jovian surface clouds to show how much water is located deep within the atmosphere and tell us more about its rocky core.
