What is the Juno Probe?

June 28, 2024

New findings from NASA's Juno probe provide a fuller picture of how widespread the lava lakes are on Jupiter's moon Io.

About Juno Probe:

JUNO is an acronym for Jupiter Near-Polar Orbiter.
It is a NASA spacecraft designed to orbit the planet Jupiter.
Juno was launched by an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 5, 2011.
The Juno spacecraft initially embarked on a 5-year journey to the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter.
Main Goal: Learn more about Jupiter’s origins and how the planet has changed.
Since it arrived at Jupiter in 2016, it has been probing beneath the dense, forbidding clouds encircling the giant planet – the first orbiter to peer so closely.
Juno orbits Jupiter every 11 days in a highly elliptical orbit (4,400 by 2,700,000 km [2,700 by 1,700,000 miles]) over the planet’s poles.
It is solar-powered.
Though Juno’s primary mission wrapped in July 2021, it’s been granted an extended mission that’s expected to end in 2025.
During the extended mission, Juno is exploring even more of the Jupiter system, including some of the planet’s most intriguing moons: Ganymede, Europa, and Io. Juno will also investigate Jupiter’s atmosphere and rings in greater detail.