Gadgetory

so it might be the fourth of July but there is no rest for the wicked scientists and engineers who have been very busy successfully getting their Juno spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter launched in 2011 and spending almost five years in transit the plucky spacecraft has covered 1.7 billion miles or 2.7 billion kilometers and is now in orbit around the biggest planet in our solar neighborhood after a 35 minute burn of its main engine the spacecraft's load itself at a rate of one thousand two hundred and twelve miles per hour getting caught by Jupiter's gravity at orbiting speed for backyard astronomers it will also provide an amazing opportunity to have a closer look at jupiters clouds without the clouds on our planet getting in the way it's not all travel snaps and postcards though over the next 20 months Juno will make 37 orbits around Jupiter measuring the temperature water content and composition of the planet's atmosphere the spacecraft will also study Jupiter's magnetic and gravitational fields revealing the internal structure of our gaseous neighbor NASA not only hopes to get a better understanding of Jupiter's origin and formation but also wants to understand how solar systems like our own develop and take shape