August 15, 2011
1 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmJourney to a Giant World: Launch Shots of the Juno Mission to Jupiter [Slide Show]
Missed watching the NASA's Juno spacecraft embark for the solar system's largest planet? Here are some photos of the liftoff
By Francie Diep
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
NASA launched its Juno probe on August 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The mission will be a meeting of mythological mates, as Juno is named after the queen of the Roman gods and has been sent to enter orbit around the planet named after Juno's husband Jupiter.
The planetary probe left Earth carried by an Atlas 5–Centaur rocket. An hour after liftoff it jettisoned the Centaur upper stage, which gave it its final boost, to proceed toward Jupiter alone. It will reach the planet in 2016, where it will settle into orbit and gather data about the gas giant's magnetic and gravitational fields and water content. Scientists think Jupiter was the first planet to form in our solar system, so its strong gravitational field may still hold some of the primordial materials that were present in the solar system when the planets first took shape about 4.56 billion years ago. NASA astronomers hope Juno will detect some of those early ingredients, providing clues to how Jupiter and the other planets were born.
View a slide show of the spacecraft and launch, featuring several pictures by photographerKen Kremer.
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber