Juno, about the size of a basketball court, successfully entered orbit around Jupiter in a procedure called Jupiter Orbit Insertion (JOI), after completing a 1.76-billion-mile journey from Earth. It’s a great day.” Image taken by Juno on Jof Jupiter and its four largest moons.

“This is the one time I don’t mind being stuck in a windowless room on the night of the 4th of July,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “And what is more American than a NASA mission going boldly where no spacecraft has gone before? With Juno, we will investigate the unknowns of Jupiter’s massive radiation belts to delve deep into not only the planet’s interior, but into how Jupiter was born and how our entire Solar System evolved.” “Independence Day always is something to celebrate, but today we can add to America’s birthday another reason to cheer – Juno is at Jupiter,” said NASA administrator Charlie Bolden. 7, 1995. Confirmation that the engine burn had completed was received on Earth at 8:53 p.m. Not only a time to celebrate the country, but it’s also the first return to Jupiter since the Galileo mission, which arrived at Jupiter back on Dec. Juno arrived at Jupiter on America’s Independence Day, July 4, 2016. We’ve seen this world up close before by spacecraft such as Voyager and Galileo, but now a new visitor has arrived in the Jovian system: NASA’s spacecraft Juno. Jupiter is also itself the center of a sort of miniature solar system, with dozens of moons orbiting around it. It is more than 2.5 times as massive as all the other planets combined, and is a mesmerizing world of colorful bands of clouds wrapping around the globe, which can be seen even in a small telescope, but exhibit incredible detail when seen by spacecraft. Jupiter has often been referred to as the King of Planets, and for good reason, as it is a massive gas giant, much larger than Earth and the largest planet in our Solar System. Artist’s conception of Juno approaching Jupiter.

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