NASA’s Juno probe has returned its first in-orbit photo of Jupiter.
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NASA’s Juno probe has returned its first in-orbit photo of Jupiter.
A sunlit section of the planet and several of its big moons are visible.
Take a peek! First pic from @NASAJuno in #Jupiter’s orbit! Close views still few weeks away: https://t.co/UjJr3xjhS9 pic.twitter.com/XMLN0O9qQg
— NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2016
Currently moving away from Jupiter, Juno is due to move back in closer next month. The first, high-resolution views from JunoCam are expected from then, NASA says.
“This scene from JunoCam indicates it survived its first pass through Jupiter’s extreme radiation environment without any degradation and is ready to take on Jupiter.”
“We can’t wait to see the first view of Jupiter’s poles,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio on the NASA website.
The image sent by the colour visible-light camera were taken when the probe was some 4.3 million kilometres away from the planet, during the outbound leg of an initial 53.5-day capture orbit.