NASA’s Juno mission to
Jupiter was launched on August 5, 2011 and after 8 years it is still providing important
data. Recently NASA’s Juno spacecraft has caught solar eclipse on Jupiter. The photos
were snapped using JunoCam's tool on board the spacecraft.
In the amazing images Io is casting
its shadow on the colourful North Equatorial belt of Jupiter.
Juno spacecraft performs a
close flyby every 53 days and next flyby is expected on November 3. NASA
expects Juno to perform at least 53 flybys and the upcoming flyby will be 23rd.
The very last flyby is
expected on July 30, 2021 and after that Juno mission will end in a controlled
swan dive into the planet.
The dive is really important
as to avoid the possibility of contact with life-bearing worlds such as
Jupiter’s moon Europa.