Juno Jupiter orbit animation

This animation depicts the orbit of NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter in 2016 and 2017. Over about 15 months, Juno makes 33 orbits around the giant planet's poles, coming to within 3100 miles (5000 kilometers) of Jupiter's cloud tops every 11 days.

The view in this sequence shows Juno's successive passes around Jupiter without regard for the planet's rotation. In reality, Jupiter rotates every 10 hours, and Juno's orbit is timed so that during each close approach, the spacecraft flies over a different swath of the planet.

The view here is toward Jupiter, as seen from Earth over the course of the science mission. Jupiter's north pole is up.

The movie also illustrates how Juno's orbit tilts increasingly southward over time. This is because Jupiter is not a perfect sphere -- additional mass around its middle alters Juno's orbit during each successive pass.

Credit: NASA/JPL

[NASAJuno]

@The4LA2Baker0 We’ll break this reply into several parts in order to address the questions thoroughly.

Juno is not designed to operate inside Jupiter’s atmosphere and any science collected during this time would be considered a bonus. The spacecraft may transmit live data as it de-orbits, or it may play back earlier data deemed to be of high value. That said, the team plans to operate the spacecraft's science instruments as long as possible.

[NASAJuno]

@The4LA2Baker0 At the end of the mission, after 33 orbits, Juno is directed to dive into Jupiter's atmosphere where it will burn up like a meteor. See youtu.be/KuIUwBmFdlM. To learn more about why we do this, visit our website:

[NASAJuno]

@NASAJuno After passing below an altitude of 3500 km above the cloud tops (which are around the 1 bar level in the atmosphere), it is anticipated that Juno will continue to take measurements and communicate with the Earth for approximately four minutes. At this point (approx. 1000 km above the 1 bar level) atmospheric torques overpower the spacecraft and force our high gain antenna to point away from the Earth.

[NASAJuno]

@NASAJuno We probably won't be taking images with JunoCam during deorbit. The first images from all three imaging instruments (JunoCam, UVS and JIRAM) should start to flow during the approach to Jupiter a couple of months before arrival. They won't be real exciting until we're firmly in orbit and doing science.

[FutureAIDev]

Does the orbit precess for the same reason as Mercury does?

[NASAJuno]

@NASAJuno At this point, although the spacecraft should still be operating nominally, any data generated is unlikely to be received on the ground. Soon afterward the spacecraft will burn up as it encounters increasing friction from the atmosphere.

[Nicwtf]

Will Juno perform an aerocapture on Jupiter?

Esta animación está un poco anticuada, actualmente hay dos primeras órbitas más lejanas y las restantes más cercanas, con una duración de 14 días cada una. ¿Hay actualización de este video?

[TheRealNewWhirledOrder]

The south pole of jupiter picture looks like a close up of a blue geode. Soooo fake.