The Juno probe is in the orbit of Jupiter – The Republic

“Welcome to Jupiter!” is the cry raised with applause in the headquarters of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California. Have snapped everyone stood when it was confirmed by more than 500 million kilometers: Juno has entered the orbit of Jupiter, not only, its main engine has slowed for all 35 minutes provided. Means that better could not go.

the insertion into orbit was the most delicate stage so far, for many reasons. The first is that they were not admitted mistakes, if the engine does not light to slow the mad rush of Juno (over 200 thousand kilometers per hour) or if you had it on for a time not enough, the NASA probe have escaped despite immense gravitational pull of Jupiter and would begin a long odyssey for solar system with no possibility of returning back on his goal.
Twenty minutes was the least “burn time” (braking) to stay orbit, 35 minutes would ensure the perfect orbit. And so it was. Now Juno is moving away from Jupiter, he will return to scrutinize closely the end of August, thus completing the first revolution around the gas giant, this time with all powered sensors (including JunoCam that will give us stunning images) to send to Earth valuable information on the most massive planet in the solar system. The equipment had been turned off about five days before arrival and will be activated 50 hours after a successful orbit insertion. This is why there are no images of the maneuver creepy accomplished today.

concerns about the success of the maneuver were tied even really extreme environment that Juno has had to go through. NASA no one would have been able to predict with certainty the impact that the powerful magnetic field and radiation would have on the probe. It seems that everything went as planned. And now the wait is for the scientific results of the observations.
Juno will start to orbit Jupiter at first with an orbit very ‘lungha’, of about 53 days. In late August he will return to “perijove”, the closest point, to fit them on a more stable period of 14 days prescribed for scientific observations. The highly elliptical orbits will allow the probe to get very close to the planet (up to about 4 thousand kilometers above the thick clouds) why no one before her. And during the rest of the time will send the data to Earth.

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‘rejoicing in the success of the delicate maneuver is also Italian: “another great result for Italy and for the National Institute of Astrophysics, which has the scientific responsibility of Jiram, instrument made in Italy aboard the Juno mission, conceived by research team led by our planetologist angioletta coradini, disappeared five years ago – said Nicolò D’Amico, president of the Institute of Astrophysics – now opens a fascinating new chapter of Jupiter exploration, in which the researchers of They will play a role as protagonists. “
The second critical phase covered the solar panels, but this has been successful. To rein in the right direction Juno (the first spacecraft to get so far only solar-powered) had to rotate and its wings no longer looked directly at the sun. By maneuvering for a few hours alone with his battery. After having followed the ‘burn’ Juno has therefore turned back toward the Sun, and so it shall be with here in February 2018 for all 20 months allowed for the duration of the mission.

The principal investigator of the instrument onboard Jiram Juno is Alberto Adriani, a researcher of the Institute of Astrophysics, at the moment at JPL to follow the orbit insertion: “finally after eleven years of work including five travel through space we are finally to Jupiter, half as much wait! and now comes the fun part: we look forward to turning our instruments and collect the first scientific data, which will allow us to uncover many still unknown aspects of the largest and most hostile of all the planets of our solar system. “

the nine instruments on board, two of whom Italian-built, is set to work to respond to the many open questions on the giant planet, such as the composition of the nucleus and the extreme environment in which it is immersed, where the radiation is more intense than in any other place of our planetary system. This is to investigate and study the origins of Jupiter, where and how it is formed, to find important answers also on the formation of the solar system.

“Juno is a historical mission that sees once NASA and ASI together in search of basic information to explain the origins of the solar system – said Roberto Battiston – the study of Jupiter is also a great scientific challenge and technology to which Italy takes part with two advanced tools through Inaf and industries such as Leonardo Finmeccanica and Thales Alenia Space. This mission shows that the Italian scientific community play a role of the highest importance, also the historic partnership with NASA It has proved a crucial growth opportunities of both companies that the Italian researchers. “

Topics:

juno

Jupiter

nASA

asi

INAF

Jet propulsion laboratory

solar system

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